Determining the long-term impact of contracting COVID-19 on cognitive ability.

To study the consequences of COVID-19, cognitive ability was examined by recording the accuracy and reaction times on the Eriksen Flanker Task. Participants were asked if they had previously contracted COVID-19 and retrospectively sorted into one of two groups: "non-COVID" (control) and "COVID" (experimental). A total of 103 individuals participated and completed the study with 23 of the participants having previously contracted COVID-19. The impact COVID-19 was examined and it was found that those who had contracted COVID-19 performed significantly worse on the Eriksen Flanker Task for both accuracy and reaction times when compared to those who had not contracted COVID-19. These results suggest that contracting COVID-19 leads to a decline in response inhibition and could potentially affect other cognitive abilities.