The concentration box is an effective fantasy technique that increases student attention span and helps build the capacity to concentrate. It can be used with a small group, an entire class, or an individual. The procedure is outlined and suggestions are made. (Author/BEF)

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.…

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,"…

Conjugate reinforcement is a new attention measure which has emerged from experimental psychology. It can provide accurate measurement of a subject's attention to a stimulus. In conjugate reinforcement, the duration of the stimulus varies directly and immediately with the subject's rate of response. In this process, the subject must demonstrate…

This study examined effects of social praise on attentive behavior of reinforced and nonreinforced children. Two pairs of mentally retarded preschool boys served as subjects. Results revealed that intervention procedure increased the attentive behavior of the target subjects and nonreinforced subjects also increased their attentive behavior during…

The development of capacity for attention was assessed by giving children 5, 8, 9, and 12 years of age a component-selection task with instructions to attend to one component or another, or with no specific instructions regarding the stimuli. (CM)

Examined age-related changes in visual selective attention--ability to resist interference--in children 5 to 12 years old and adults. The interference effect on stimulus evaluation did not discriminate between age groups; however, the interference effect on correct response activation showed a pronounced age-related reduction, suggesting a…

Eighteen moderately mentally retarded adults, 20 nonretarded elementary age children, and 20 nonretarded adults were exposed to three conditions of an auditory detection task (location, meaning, and a combination of both). Developmentally immature subjects (retarded adults and nonretarded children) demonstrated less efficient attentional capacity.…

This article reviews research on the spatial contiguity and temporal contiguity effects. Research on these instructional design effects has focussed on the instructional benefits for novices of reducing split attention between spatially or temporally disparate but related elements of information. Meta-analytic techniques were applied to 50…

A study was conducted to investigate further the dichotic outcomes in right-handers as a function of sex, ear-side, and most especially stronger attentional bias. The derived prediction was: that increased focus time on the right side would produce a striking right ear advantage (REA) in either right-handed men or women, replicating the most…

Lack of attentional control--inability to concentrate--has often made the difference between successful and unsuccessful performance on the part of athletes. Attention is controlled neurologically by a very complex interaction of a large portion of the cerebrum and is not localized to any one structure. The mechanism involves a memory retrieval…

Selective attention was assessed in second, fourth, and sixth grade reflective and impulsive children with an incidental learning task using pictures (animal-household object pairs) or shapes (colored forms) as stimuli. By the sixth grade, reflective children displayed less incidental learning and greater central learning than impulsive children…

Recent research has substantiated long-standing beliefs of classroom teachers about the relationship between pupil engagement and achievement; one of these is that increased pupil involvement or attention to the learning task increases learning. Additionally, consistent teaching behaviors and classroom variables are frequently associated with…