A Developmental Analysis of Visual and Auditory Sustained Attention and Reflection-Impulsivity in Hyperactive and Normal Children

Abstract

Sustained attention to visual and auditory stimuli and reflection-impulsivity were examined in hyperactive and normal 9- and 14-year-old boys. 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 increased in sustained attention efficiency with age to auditory but not visual stimuli. Both groups increased with age in reflection-impulsivity as measured by Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT). Correlations between the sustained attention scores and the MFFT error and latency scores were not significant for hyperactive children. Recommendations were made for training programs that offer hyperactive children remediation in developing sustained attention efficiency to visual information.