Sustained and Selective Attention in Children with Learning Disabilities
- 1 February 1990
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Journal of Learning Disabilities
- Vol. 23 (2) , 129-136
- https://doi.org/10.1177/002221949002300210
Abstract
Sustained and selective attention of 30 fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students with learning disabilities (LD) and 20 controls were compared. A continuous performance test (CPT) yielded no differences for students with LD and controls, suggesting similar ability for both groups in sustaining attention and inhibiting impulsive responding. Subjects with LD made more errors than controls on a selective attention task when letter distractors were adjacent to the target letter but not when they were distant, and more correct responses than controls when facilitating letters were adjacent to the target, suggesting that students with LD are less able to narrow the focus of their attention. Longer response times by students with LD indicate that they have slower information-processing skills than controls. Regrouping students according to teacher ratings for attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) yielded the customary impulsive response set on the CPT and more errors on the selective attention task, but no differences on response times for students with ADHD. LD students with ADHD made more errors than LD students without ADHD when letter distractors were adjacent to the target letter.Keywords
This publication has 29 references indexed in Scilit:
- Hyperactivity and Learning DifficultiesJournal of Learning Disabilities, 1986
- The selective attention of learning-disabled children: Three studiesJournal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 1984
- Distractibility in Learning-Disabled ChildrenJournal of Learning Disabilities, 1984
- Information Processed from Brief Visual Displays by Learning-Disabled BoysChild Development, 1983
- The prevalence of learning disabilities in a sample of children considered hyperactiveJournal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 1980
- Toward a Clearer Definition of the Attentional Deficit of Hyperactive ChildrenPublished by Springer Nature ,1979
- Normative data on Revised Conners Parent and Teacher Rating ScalesJournal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 1978
- CHILDREN'S VIGILANCE PERFORMANCE AND INATTENTIVENESS IN THE CLASSROOMJournal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1978
- A REVIEW OF STIMULANT DRUG RESEARCH WITH HYPERACTIVE CHILDRENJournal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 1977
- Attention Deficits and the Effects of Visual DistractionJournal of Learning Disabilities, 1976