Testing the attentional deficit notion.

Abstract

The current evidence for an attentional deficit explanation of learning disability must be evaluated cautiously. The attentional deficit notion really represents a number of different hypotheses, which means that it is permitted a great many degrees of freedom in accounting for data. Also, many of the findings cited as supporting the attentional-deficit notion are equally consistent with the two basic alternative explanations for learning disability: the diminished capacity and the specific deficit hypotheses. Finally, the existing studies rarely provide the information needed to differentiate the processing deficit responsible for learning disabilities from concomitant deficits that may occur as a part of the minimal brain dysfunction syndrome or reflect motivational and emotional difficulties. Until researchers address these issues, an attentional deficit explanation for learning disability will remain conjectural.