Attentional Resource Allocation Scale (ARAS)

Background:

Initial analyses of the Attentional Resource Allocation Scale (ARAS) suggested three factors (i.e., imaginative involvement, dissociative amnesia, attentional dissociation).

Psychometrics:

The ARAS has been shown to have acceptable internal consistency in undergraduate (α=.85) and community samples (α=.91; Carleton et al., 2010).

Author of Tool:

Carleton, Abrams, & Asmundson

Key references:

Bernstein, E.M., & Putnam, F.W. (1986). Development, reliability, and validity of a dissociation scale. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 174(12), 727-735.

Carleton, R. N., Abrams, M. P., & Asmundson, G. J. G. (2010). The attentional resource allocation scale (ARAS): Psychometric properties of a composite measure for dissociation and absorption. Depression and Anxiety, 27, 775-786. doi: 10.1002/da.20656

Tellegen, A. & Atkinson, G. (1974). Openness to absorbing and self-altering experiences (“absorption”), a trait related to hypnotic susceptibility. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 83(3), 268-277.

Primary use / Purpose:

The Attentional Resource Allocation Scale (ARAS; Carleton, Abrams, & Asmundson, 2010) is a 15-item measure designed to assess the attention-modifying trait constructs of absorption and dissociation with items ranging from 0 (never) to 4 (always) derived from the DES (Bernstein & Putnam, 1986) and TAS (Tellegen & Atkinson, 1974).

 

Other Information:

Scoring:

  • Imaginative Involvement Subscale: items 1,3 , 8, 9, 10, 12
  • Dissociative Amnesia Subscale: items 2, 5, 7, 11, 13
  • Attentional Dissociation Subscale: items 4, 6, 14, 15

Total score is often used

Attentional Resource Allocation Scale (ARAS)

Item number ARAS item Factor
ARAS 1 When I listen to music, I can get so caught up in it that I don’t notice anything else (TAS 12) 1
ARAS 2 I find evidence that I have done things that I do not remember doing (DES 25) 2
ARAS 3 When listening to organ music or other powerful music 1
 

ARAS 4

I sometimes feel as if I am being lifted into the air (TAS 24) I sometimes sit staring off into space, thinking of nothing,

and am not aware of the passage of time (DES 20)

 

3

ARAS 5 Listening to someone talk and suddenly realizing that

I did not hear all or part of what was said (DES 2)

2
ARAS 6 I find that when I am watching television or a movie I

become so absorbed in the story that I am unaware of

3
 

ARAS 7

other events happening around me (DES 17)

The experience of being in a familiar place but finding

 

2

 

ARAS 8

it strange and unfamiliar (DES 16)

The experience of finding myself in a place and having

 

1

 

ARAS 9

no idea how I got there (DES 3)

The sound of a voice can be so fascinating to me that I

 

1

 

ARAS 10

can just go on listening to it (TAS 30)

It is sometimes possible for me to be completely immersed in nature or in art and to feel as if my whole state of

 

1

 

ARAS 11

consciousness has somehow been temporarily altered (TAS 16)

The experience of feeling that other people, objects, and the

 

2

 

ARAS 12

world around me are not real (DES 12)

If I wish, I can imagine (or daydream) some things so vividly

that they hold my attention as a good movie or story does (TAS 7)

 

1

ARAS 13 The experience of feeling as though I am standing next to myself or watching myself do something as if I were looking at another person (DES 7) 2
ARAS 14 The experience of driving a car and suddenly realizing that

I don’t remember what has happened during all or part of the trip (DES 1)

3
ARAS 15 I am able to wander off into my thoughts while doing a routine

task and actually forget that I am doing the task, and then find a few minutes later that I have completed it (TAS 18)

3
x