Two experiments studied whether altering an auditory stimulus' rate of change affected infants' fixation of changing visual stimuli. Results demonstrated that infants exposed simultaneously to auditory and visual stimulation showed a reduced tendency to fixate on relatively more visually stimulating events. Heart rates also accelerated during…

Twelve children (ages 7-8) with attention deficit hyperactive disorder were administered the Selective Auditory Attention Test twice: after the administration of methylphenidate and after the administration of a placebo. Results revealed no simple drug effect but a strong order effect. (Author/JDD)

This study, involving 40 normal-hearing 6 year olds, substantiates the form equivalence of the Selective Auditory Attention Test. Analysis shows equal mean difficulty and significant correlations between lists in quiet and between lists presented with competing speech. (Author/JDD)

Infants' orienting of attention undergoes marked development in the first six months of life. Changes in attentional control appear to be related to infants' susceptibility to distress. (Author)

A study examined the effects of rationale emotive psychoeducational procedures on aspects of mental health with 22 Australian fourth grade girls and 14 control subjects who received an attention control intervention. Rational emotive education increased perceptions of internal locus of control and rationality but did not reduce trait anxiety.…

A visual orienting task was given to 11 high functioning male adolescents and adults with autism. Findings suggested that autistic people have difficulty processing briefly presented cue information and problems disengaging and shifting attention within the visual modality. Results support previous ideas that attentional dysfunction may underlie…

Three professors share techniques for helping students focus on assessments required in classes. Charts are used to show students the specific concepts, principles, and problems that will be included on multiple-choice tests; rubrics developed for assigned work are used to increase student expectations and direct their explorations; and negotiated…

Examines evidence that the research community studying infants' object concept and the community concerned with adult object-based attention have been studying the same natural kind. Maintains that the discovery that the object representations of young infants are the same as the object files of mid-level visual cognition has implications for both…

This article reviews factors that contribute to and improve selective and sustained attention in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD--the inattentive and combined subtypes). A brief review of interventions for inattention included psychostimulant medication, behavioral consequences, active-learning, practice, and cognitive…

This study examined relationships between mathematical learning difficulties (MLD) and the planning, attention, simultaneous, successive (PASS) theory of cognitive processing. PASS processes were assessed in 267 Dutch students with MLD. Results indicated students with MLD performed lower than peers on all "Cognitive Assessment System"…

Background: This study investigated whether another person's social attention, specifically the direction of their eye gaze, and a non-social directional cue, an arrow, triggered reflexive orienting in children with and without autism in an experimental situation. Methods: Children with autism and typically developed children participated in one…

Attention acts as the mind's "gatekeeper" by regulating and prioritizing the stimuli processed by the central nervous system. It is essential for cognitive performance, memory, and behavior, and we know that even slight deficiencies in attention compromise learning. Basic neuroscience research further indicates that attention consists of (fairly)…

This study examined the relation of information processing in 7-month-old preterms ([less than] 1750g at birth) and full-terms to Bayley Mental Development Indexes (MDIs) at 2 and 3 years. The infant measures were drawn from four cognitive domains: attention, speed, memory, and representational competence. Structural equation modeling showed that…

This study investigated attention control in tasks involving the processing of relational terms (more highly grammaticized linguistic stimuli: spatial prepositions) and non-relational terms (less highly grammaticized lexical stimuli: nouns) in a first (L1) and second language (L2). Participants were adult bilinguals with greater proficiency in…

In 118 children followed from age 2 to 5 (59 with autism, 24 with PDD-NOS and 35 with non-spectrum developmental disabilities), age 2 and age 3 scores of non-verbal ability, receptive communication, expressive communication and socialization were compared as predictors of receptive and expressive language at age 5. Non-verbal cognitive ability at…