Sustained Attention and the Effects of Distraction in Underachieving Second Grade Children

Abstract

The relationship between attention deficits and learning problems was studied in thirty-three second grade children. Impairment in sustained attention, the effects of auditory distractors upon sustained attention, the deployment of attention in a visual field (field articulation), and the management of information over time (Leveling-Sharpening) were investigated in underachieving children. Underachievers were significantly lower than controls in Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Verbal and Full Scale I.Q.'s but not in Performance I.Q. Underachievers were significantly poorer in their performance on a more difficult measure of sustained attention. Only the letters spoken distractor produced a significant effect on the performance of underachievers on an easier measure of sustained attention. The major effect of distraction in both groups was to decrease attention to critical stimuli rather than to significantly increase responses to distracting stimuli. Underachievers also had more difficulty in withholding attention from irrelevant stimuli on a measure of field articulation, but stimuli more central to the task had an apparently greater effect on their performance than peripheral stimuli. Underachievers did not differ from controls with respect to Leveling-Sharpening. Significant correlations were found between underachievers’ performance on measures of sustained attention and measures of field articulation. The findings suggest that impairment in sustained attention is associated with difficulty in learning in second grade children and that such impairment can be identified at an earlier age, and in children with less marked academic underachievement, than is commonly believed.