Attempts to improve methods employed by Uzgiris and Hunt. The longitudinal schedule of events in this experiment involved 24 infants one month old in an experimental group whose mothers were instructed to present and change a visual stimulus pattern. (WY)

Studies reported showed retarded children less inattentive and distractible than the literature has suggested, and suggested that increased non-task orientations (glancing) in the presence of an adult might best be interpreted as information seeking rather than evidence of distractibility. (Author/KW)

Results of this study of 72 4-month-old infants suggest caution in using an overt demonstration of habituation as a necessary index of perceptual learning. (Author/MG)

Based on an M.A. degree submitted to McMaster University, England.

Multivariate analyses, followed by univariate tests, indicated that the normal children increased in sustained attention efficiency with age to both visual and auditory stimuli. Hyperactive children (9-14 years old) increased in sustained attention efficiency with age to auditory but not visual stimuli. (Author)

Determines whether an averaged evoked potential technique using a random-v-repetitive presentation mode could be used to study infant auditory discrimination. Results showed a main effect of presentation mode with shorter latency for random v repetitive. The shortest onset latency was for random stimulus at the fast rate. (Author/DB)

This study investigated (1) hyperactive children's performance on an adaptation of the operant vigilance task, and (2) possible differences in performance when short intersignal intervals versus long intervals were employed. (Author/DB)

Examines individual variation in infants' exploratory play with objects. Distinguishes exploratory and nonexploratory manipulative play, and shows that only exploratory play relates to focused attention and learning. Discusses resistance to distraction during focused attention, relationships between exploratory play and mastery motivation, and the…

A group of 45 people over age 50 attempted to solve the Bridges of Konigsberg problem, which has no solution. No age differences were found in time spent on task; performance was not related to IQ test performance or length of education. Results suggest that perseverance is unaffected by aging. (SK)

Challenging formal education's traditional monopoly over the mass-scale acculturation of youth, the technological infrastructure of the new economy brings in its wake a new attentional economy in which any connected adult or child owns and controls a full economic share of her or his own attention. For youth who have never known the text-bound…

Often times, teachers and prospective teachers repeat the "common knowledge" that young children have short attention spans. How often this becomes another self-fulfilling prophecy as teachers switch frequently from one activity to another, before student attention can wander, in an imitation of the Sesame Street model of teaching as…

A neural theory of visual attention (NTVA) is presented. NTVA is a neural interpretation of C. Bundesen's (1990) theory of visual attention (TVA). In NTVA, visual processing capacity is distributed across stimuli by dynamic remapping of receptive fields of cortical cells such that more processing resources (cells) are devoted to behaviorally…

Differences between pervasive (home and day-care/school) versus non-pervasive (home only) conduct problems were examined in regard to various child, parent/family, and day-care/school characteristics in an outpatient clinic sample of 120 children aged 4-8 years. All children scored above the 90th percentile on the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory…