The effect of different stimulus attributes on the attentional performance of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia

Li-Chih WANG, Huang-Ju TSAI, Hsien-Ming YANG

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlespeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

While teachers have traditionally used the interesting objects to increase student attention in the classroom, evidence supporting the effectiveness of this method is lacking. The present study investigated the influence of different stimulus attributes for typical developing students and for students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia. Thirty children with ADHD, 30 children with dyslexia, and 30 typical developing students were tested using a measuring tool that was constructed by the authors to assess their sustained attention and selective attention on the geometric-figure assessment and the interesting-figure assessment. The geometric-figure assessment included a square, circle, trapezium, and triangle; and the interesting-figure assessment included a house, cat, hand, and tree. While the typical developing group showed better selective attention on the geometric-figure assessment, there was no difference between the dyslexic group and the ADHD group with respect to selective attention. Furthermore, the typical developing and dyslexic groups did not differ in the geometric-figure assessment in sustained attention and were both better in this area than the ADHD group. In the interesting-figure assessment, the typical developing and dyslexic groups performed similarly in sustained attention, but selective attention of the dyslexic group improved more than the ADHD group, similar to the typical developing group. Both selective attention of the dyslexic group and sustained attention of the ADHD group showed positive significant differences in the interesting-figure assessment, but sustained attention of the dyslexic group and selective attention of the ADHD group showed little difference in the interesting-figure assessment. Surprisingly, the typical developing group did not show any significant difference in the interesting-figure assessment, possibly because they had previously demonstrated a ceiling effect in the geometric-figure assessment. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3936-3945
JournalResearch in Developmental Disabilities
Volume34
Issue number11
Early online dateSept 2013
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2013

Citation

Wang, L.-C., Tsai, H.-J., & Yang, H.-M. (2013). The effect of different stimulus attributes on the attentional performance of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 34(11), 3936-3945. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2013.08.038

Keywords

  • Dyslexia
  • Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder
  • Sustained attention
  • Stimulus attribute
  • Alt. title: The effect of different attributes of stimulus for attentional performance of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The effect of different stimulus attributes on the attentional performance of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and dyslexia'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.