Neuropsychological characteristics of college males who show attention dysfunction.

Abstract

400 male college students were screened on a measure of vigilance, the Continuous Performance Test. A Good Attention Group (upper 5% of the CPT score distribution) and a Poor Attention Group (lower 5%) were selected and compared on a series of perceptual and motor tests. The Good Attention Group was superior to the Poor Attention Group on most of the measures. The largest differences were found on tests assessing perceptual-motor organization. Attention dysfunction in this non-patient sample seems to be associated with performance deficits. Over-all, the pattern of neuropsychological results seen in the Poor Attention Group is not similar to the pattern seen in patients with lateralized brain damage but appears more similar to that seen in those with bilateral and diffuse cortical damage.