Examined temporal structure of free toy play by five year olds. Findings showed that the engagement of children's attention was initially fragile; became more fragile for a period of about 12 seconds into toy play episodes; and then grew stronger. (SH)

This study, with 17 young adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and 62 without ADHD, found no significant correlations between full scale IQ and scores on the Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA). However, analysis of variance revealed that subjects with ADHD made more errors of omission on the TOVA than did controls.…

Research indicates that attentional deficits exist in aphasic individuals. However, relatively little is known about auditory vigilance performance in individuals with aphasia. The current study explores reaction time (RT) and accuracy in 10 aphasic participants and 10 nonbrain-damaged controls during linguistic and nonlinguistic auditory…

Objective: Methylphenidate has four optical isomers due to two asymmetries (erythro-threo and dextro-levo). The initial commercial formulation eliminated the erythro isomer, but the dextro-levo asymmetry was racemic, with equal amounts of d and l-threo isomers (d,l-MPH). Previous work has suggested that the d-threo isomer methylphenidate (d-MPH)…

Objective: To examine the relationship between time reproduction, performance variability, and sustained attention deficits in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) combined (ADHD-C) and inattentive (ADHD-I) subtypes, relative to matched controls. Method: Participants (age range 7.1-14.1 years) performed a time reproduction…

Objective: To evaluate the long-term tolerability and effectiveness of extended-release mixed amphetamine salts (MAS XR; Adderall XR[R]) in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Method: This was a 24-month, multicenter, open-label extension of TWO placebo-controlled studies of MAS XR in children with ADHD aged 6 to 12…

Pragmatic development requires the ability to use linguistic forms, along with non-verbal cues, to focus an interlocutor's attention on a referent during conversation. We investigate the development of this ability by examining how the use of demonstratives is learned in Turkish, where a three-way demonstrative system ("bu,"…

This research study evaluated the effects of memory demand on sustained attention, by varying the time interval between the presentations of stimuli in a cognitive vigilance task. Sixteen retarded and 16 nonretarded adult observers performed four 60-minute visual vigilance tasks in which single digits were presented sequentially and successively…

Sustained attention to visual and auditory stimuli and reflection-impulsivity were examined in 48 hyperactive and 48 normal 9 and 14 year old boys. Multivariate analyses, followed by univariate tests, indicated that the nonhyperactive Ss increased sustained attention efficiency with age to both visual and auditory Stimuli. Hyperactive Ss increased…

When children with Down's syndrome and normally developing children of comparable mental age were compared in their ability to find things they saw in a mirror, it was found that the ability of children with Down's syndrome paralleled that of normally developing children, but that motivational, attentional, and exploratory differences may exist.…

A microcomputer technique was used to measure the attention span of 115 boys and 117 girls in kindergarten through the ninth grade. Attentional ability increased only up through the fifth grade, and both the false alarm rate and the interstimulus interval scores were related to behavioral activity during test sessions. (Author/CB)

Evaluated number of format and direction changes across tests and grade levels of major elementary standardized reading achievement tests. Number of format changes varies from one change every 1.2 minutes on Metropolitan Achievement Test Level E1 to one change every 21.3 minutes on P1 level of Stanford Achievement Test. (Author)

Teacher ratings of the anomalous classroom behaviors of hyperactivity, inattention, perceptual-motor impairment, perserveration, and stereotype were examined as predictors of performance of 82 mentally retarded 6-18 year olds on a visual discrimination task. Weak but statistically reliable correlations were obtained. (Author/CL)

A work reproduction design was used to examine the effect of attentional focus on the perception of physical work. Subjects performed a fixed interval of work while answering arithmetic problems or performing in an unfilled control condition. Results of this study are discussed. (Author/DF)

Effects of learning names for random nonsense shapes prior to a probe-type serial-recall task were investigated in disabled readers. No differences among reading groups on recall strength of primary recall were found, suggesting similar verbal skills. (Author)