Optimal Stimulation Theory Research Articles

Effects of Environmental Enrichment on Stress and Welfare in Laboratory Animals

Purpose: The general purpose of this study was to examine the effects of environmental enrichment on stress and welfare in laboratory animals.
 Methodology: The study adopted a desktop research methodology. Desk research refers to secondary data or that which can be collected without fieldwork. Desk research is basically involved in collecting data from existing resources hence it is often considered a low cost technique as compared to field research, as the main cost is involved in executive’s time, telephone charges and directories. Thus, the study relied on already published studies, reports and statistics. This secondary data was easily accessed through the online journals and library.
 Findings: The findings reveal that there exists a contextual and methodological gap relating to the effects of environmental enrichment on stress and welfare in laboratory animals. Preliminary empirical review revealed that that enriching their living environments significantly improved their well-being. They found that interventions such as physical, social, cognitive, and sensory enrichment reduced stress levels, promoted natural behaviors, and enhanced cognitive function. Tailoring enrichment programs to specific species' needs and considering factors like environmental complexity and novelty proved crucial. Moreover, these interventions not only benefited animal welfare but also improved research outcomes by reducing stress and enhancing the validity of preclinical studies. Overall, the research underscored the importance of implementing evidence-based enrichment strategies to ensure the ethical treatment of laboratory animals and enhance the reliability of scientific research.
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Practice and Policy: The Biophilia Hypothesis, Optimal Stimulation theory and Stress Inoculation theory may be used to anchor future studies on stress and welfare in laboratory animals. The study made significant contributions to theory, practice, and policy in the field of laboratory animal welfare. It provided valuable insights into the underlying mechanisms of environmental enrichment's influence on animal well-being, contributing to existing theoretical frameworks such as the Biophilia Hypothesis, Optimal Stimulation Theory, and Stress Inoculation Theory. Additionally, the study offered practical recommendations for implementing evidence-based enrichment programs tailored to the needs of different animal species. These findings informed policy development by guiding the establishment of standards for enrichment in laboratory animal facilities, enhancing the protection and welfare of laboratory animals across institutional and national levels.
 Keywords: Environmental Enrichment, Laboratory Animals, Stress, Welfare, Mechanisms, Biophilia Hypothesis, Optimal Stimulation Theory, Stress Inoculation Theory, Implementation, Standards, Well-Being

Visual complexity = hedonic? Effects of visually complex packages on consumer perceptions and evaluations of products

This study investigates the effect of visual complexity in package design on consumer perceptions and evaluations of a product, with a particular emphasis on how product type (vice or virtue) interacts with this effect. Drawing on the cue utilization theory and Berlyne's optimal stimulation theory, the findings of five empirical studies across various product categories consistently indicate that visually complex packaging enhances evaluations of virtue (vs. vice) products by increasing hedonic utility. This research contributes to the existing literature on marketing and visual communication and provides practical insights for practitioners.

Evaluating the efficacy of using a novel gaze-based attentive user interface to extend ADHD children’s attention span

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a neurobiological condition that often affects school children. A major symptom is short attention span, which may negatively influence their academic performance, specifically in those tasks that require concentration. Extending the attention span for those children could help them do better in school and in life. In this work, we propose a novel gaze-based visual attentive interface designed with the three common text color schemes of highlighting, contrast, and sharpening/blurring for the purpose of extending ADHD children’s attention span in performing reading tasks. This design is based on the optimal stimulation theory stating that children with attention and hyperactivity disorders seek the optimum stimulation and attend to the task presenting extra stimulation. Children’s attention state is monitored by a webcam for eye tracking, while mouse tracking was used as the second modality for gaze prediction because some children had difficulties in maintaining the calibration of webcam. Visual color schemes are applied to evaluate different ways of maintaining attention in the process of reading. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of such a novel interface with two fixation-based metrics – the number of read words and the total time spent in reading text – to measure attention span. The results show that these children performed better in the presence of any color scheme in comparison with using no color, with highlighting the most effective, followed by contrast and then sharpening/blurring. These findings are independent of the tracking modalities and confirm the viability of using a gaze-based attentive user interface designed with adaptive color schemes to extend ADHD children’s attention span.

박물관 방문객의 비선형 행위적 태도에 관한 연구

This study addressed research questions based on optimal stimulation theory and balance theory and investigated nonlinear behavioral attitude, which can be formed and changed positively or negatively. Specifically, this study investigated the nonlinear effect of frequency of visits, place attachment, and visit satisfaction on behavioral attitude of museum visitors. In order to achieve the aim of this study, a total of 204 empirical surveys were analyzed using three-step hierarchical regression analysis. The empirical analysis revealed that more frequent visits to a museum can cause satiation and diminish behavioral attitude, resulting in an inverted U-effect on behavioral attitude. In addition, findings reveal that affective attachment fosters behavioral attitude with a nonlinear J-effect, while place dependence reduces behavioral attitude, showing an inverted nonlinear U-effect. However, visit satisfaction in museums has no effect on behavioral attitude. These findings imply that if researchers and managers are concerned with attracting more visitors to museums, it is important to gain insights into the nonlinear effect on behavioral attitude. Finally, more comprehensive academic and practical implications and recommendations are provided.

Neuropsychological and neurophysiological benefits from white noise in children with and without ADHD.

BackgroundOptimal stimulation theory and moderate brain arousal (MBA) model hypothesize that extra-task stimulation (e.g. white noise) could improve cognitive functions of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We investigate benefits of white noise on attention and inhibition in children with and without ADHD (7–12 years old), both at behavioral and at neurophysiological levels.MethodsThirty children with and without ADHD performed a visual cued Go/Nogo task in two conditions (white noise or no-noise exposure), in which behavioral and P300 (mean amplitudes) data were analyzed. Spontaneous eye-blink rates were also recorded and participants went through neuropsychological assessment. Two separate analyses were conducted with each child separately assigned into two groups (1) ADHD or typically developing children (TDC), and (2) noise beneficiaries or non-beneficiaries according to the observed performance during the experiment. This latest categorization, based on a new index we called “Noise Benefits Index” (NBI), was proposed to determine a neuropsychological profile positively sensitive to noise.ResultsNoise exposure reduced omission rate in children with ADHD, who were no longer different from TDC. Eye-blink rate was higher in children with ADHD but was not modulated by white noise. NBI indicated a significant relationship between ADHD and noise benefit. Strong correlations were observed between noise benefit and neuropsychological weaknesses in vigilance and inhibition. Participants who benefited from noise had an increased Go P300 in the noise condition.ConclusionThe improvement of children with ADHD with white noise supports both optimal stimulation theory and MBA model. However, eye-blink rate results question the dopaminergic hypothesis in the latter. The NBI evidenced a profile positively sensitive to noise, related with ADHD, and associated with weaker cognitive control.

A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of music interventions for children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a chronic neurobehavioral disorder characterized by overactivity and impulsiveness beyond what is considered typical development. ADHD affects 3% to 10% of school-age children in the United States, with males being three to five times more likely to have an ADHD diagnosis compared with females (DuPaul, 2007). It is estimated that every teacher in the United States has at least one child with ADHD in his or her classroom, and four million school-age children are affected with the disorder (Dang, Warrington, Tung, Baker, & Pan, 2007). The symptoms of ADHD can affect all aspects of a child's life, especially school performance. Early recognition, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of ADHD are important to minimize the impact of ADHD on the individual's social development, including school performance, interactions, and self-esteem. Clinicians generally find that parents of children with ADHD describe how their children prefer the use of external stimulation, such as the TV or stereo, while completing homework tasks, and parents express concern that the use of external stimulation hinders the academic performance of their children (Abikoff, Courtney, Szeibel, & Koplewicz, 1996). However, studies have found that external stimulation may have a positive impact on academic performance for children with ADHD (Abikoff et al., 1996; Chew, 2010; Greenop & Kann, 2007; Pelham et al., 2011; Pratt, Abel, & Skidmore, 1995).A landmark study by Zentall (1975) discussed the optimal stimulation theory with regard to ADHD. Using this theory, Zentall found that children with ADHD demonstrated high levels of activity when they encounter a task or situation of low arousal or stimulation. Additionally, Zentall described how certain situations require more environmental stimulation than others in order to support effective performance. However, children with ADHD have an even higher threshold for such environmental stimulation. Therefore, children with ADHD typically display hyperactive behavior when levels of stimulation are low, and this leads to low task performance (Greenop & Kann, 2007; Zentall, 1993). According to the optimal stimulation theory, the distractibility of those with ADHD is a functional attempt to control under arousal from low levels of stimulation, by seeking increased levels of stimulation (Abikoff et al., 1996). Thus, performance levels of these children will increase rather than decrease with external stimulation.Studies addressing school performance have found that children with ADHD have difficulty sustaining attention during academic tasks, and as the academic tasks continue, the performance level of children with ADHD drops (Wu, Anderson, & Castiello, 2002; Zentall, 1993). A few studies have focused on the effects of external stimulation, specifically music, and its impact on task performance for children with ADHD; however, the current research on this topic is limited. Greenop and Kann (2007) replicated previous studies of Zentall (1993). They compared children with and without ADHD on an academic task-mathematics problems- during two counterbalanced conditions of stimulation: with or without music. They believed that performance on academic tasks depended on the level of arousal created by the task as well as the quality of the distractor. Performance was measured as the number of problems correct, the number of problems attempted, and an accuracy score. The accuracy score on the mathematics problems increased significantly during the music condition for both children with ADHD and those without ADHD.Another study was conducted with boys, in elementary school, with and without ADHD to determine the effects of auditory stimulation on their arithmetic performance (Abikoff et al., 1996). The rationale was that stimulation would help children with ADHD stay on task. The participants worked on an arithmetic task during three different auditory conditions: a high stimulation condition in which music was presented, a low stimulation condition in which speech was taking place, and a no stimulation condition of silence. …

“The snake raised its head”: Content novelty alters the reading performance of students at risk for reading disabilities and ADHD.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of story novelty (active verbs, less familiar characters, vivid adjectives, and surprising story endings) on the reading comprehension of 48 seven- to 11-year-old boys without clinical diagnoses of learning disabilities. The optimal stimulation theory provided the basis of the study, predicting differential response to novelty by 3 groups of equivalent-IQ boys, who were at risk for reading disabilities (RD; n = 16), at risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; n = 16), and typically developing (n = 16). Across conditions, the RD group performed worse than typical students in the comprehension of individually graded passages and worse than the ADHD group in causality comprehension. More important, the predicted interaction in support of theory documented better reading performance in the high- than the low-novelty condition for both at-risk groups and, specifically, in causality and inferential comprehension. In other words, it was the low-novelty reading condition that exacerbated group differences in reading comprehension. The novelty-based gains were interpreted as byproducts of increased student activation, facilitating attention for the at-risk ADHD group, who have a greater need for stimulation (novelty), and for students at risk for RD to combat fatigue associated with skill deficits.

Psychostimulant and Sensory Stimulation Interventions That Target the Reading and Math Deficits of Students With ADHD

Objective: The purpose of this review of students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was to summarize the following: (1) academic deficits in math and reading, (2) possible theoretical contributors to these deficits, and (3) psychostimulant interventions that target math and reading, as well as, parallel interventions involving sensory stimulation. Method: A comprehensive examination of the literature was conducted on children with ADHD with and without co-occurring disabilities, summarizing their reading and math achievement and the effects of psychostimulant and sensory stimulant interventions on these academic areas. Results: Students without co-occurring disabilities (ADHD-) had fewer deficits in reading than in math and than students with co-occurring disabilities (ADHD+). Furthermore, students with ADHD+ demonstrated greater responsiveness to psychostimulants through improved reading recognition and math calculations, with limited gains in literal reading comprehension. Added sensory stimulation produced differential gains for both groups in reading recognition and comprehension and in math calculations and problem solving. Conclusion: The efficacy of psychostimulants was documented on specific areas of achievement for the ADHD+ group, but this review did not support the administration of psychostimulants for students with ADHD-. For both groups of students, differential gains, losses, and habituation were documented in response to sensory stimulation for both subareas within reading and math, which were interpreted as support for the optimal stimulation theory.

Extra-Task Stimulation on Mathematics Performance in Children with and without ADHD

The optimal stimulation theory developed by Zentall (1975) holds that children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) will demonstrate high levels of activity when faced with a task or situation of low arousal or stimulation. Both Zentall's early work and more recent research have supported the theory. The present study aimed to add to this literature by comparing children with and without ADHD on an academic task under two counterbalanced stimulation conditions. The first required children to do mathematics problems in silence, and the second required doing the problems with their favourite music playing. Twenty-two children with ADHD and 20 children without ADHD, with a mean age of 9.75 years, were hypothesised to perform significantly differently under the two conditions. Mathematics performance was scored as Correct, Number attempted, and Accurate (number correct divided by number attempted). A repeated measures ANOVA demonstrated that generally no main effects for group (ADHD and non-ADHD) nor condition (music and silence) were observed. The only significant finding was that Accuracy (the complex mathematical calculation) improved for both the ADHD and non-ADHD groups, an effect not influenced by order of task presentation. This finding supports the optimal stimulation theory for all children under both order conditions, and is not specific to ADHD.

Sensory modality, temperament, and the development of sustained attention: A vigilance study in children and adults.

Applying optimal stimulation theory, the present study explored the development of sustained attention as a dynamic process. It examined the interaction of modality and temperament over time in children and adults. Second-grade children and college-aged adults performed auditory and visual vigilance tasks. Using the Carey temperament questionnaires (S. C. McDevitt & W. B. Carey, 1995), the authors classified participants according to temperament composites of reactivity and task orientation. In a preliminary study, tasks were equated across age and modality using d' matching procedures. In the main experiment, 48 children and 48 adults performed these calibrated tasks. The auditory task proved more difficult for both children and adults. Intermodal relations changed with age: Performance across modality was significantly correlated for children but not for adults. Although temperament did not significantly predict performance in adults, it did for children. The temperament effects observed in children--specifically in those with the composite of reactivity--occurred in connection with the auditory task and in a manner consistent with theoretical predictions derived from optimal stimulation theory.

Activity in children with ADHD during waiting situations in the classroom: A pilot study

According to the optimal stimulation theory and the delay aversion hypothesis, children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) experience difficulties when they are confronted with low levels of stimulation and delay, respectively. This study investigated the activity level of children with ADHD during waiting situations in the classroom. Three series of hypothesis were made: (1) with respect to the comparison between waiting and non-waiting intervals, (2) with respect to the effects of non-temporal stimulation, and (3) with respect to the effects of temporal stimulation on behaviour during waiting. The activity level of 14 children with ADHD and 14 control children between the ages of 6 and 11 years was observed during two non-waiting class situations and three waiting situations: without any stimulation, in the presence of nontemporal stimulation and in the presence of temporal stimulation. Both groups of children obtained higher activity scores for all behavioural dimensions during waiting compared with non-waiting situations. The results further revealed additive effects of waiting and diagnostic group on behaviour. Additional nontemporal stimulation during waiting affected the behaviour of all children for most behavioural characteristics. For noisiness, additive effects were also found for diagnostic group and either non-temporal stimulation or temporal stimulation. For restlessness, a trend for an interaction effect between diagnostic group and nontemporal stimulation was found. The findings have clear implications for school observations within an assessment protocol.

The use of a learning station to increase self-control for homework completion.

The use of a Learning Station to improve student's self-control in order to complete homework is described. The Learning Station contains components to alleviate boredom and foster self-focus leading to increased self-control. Students are stimulated through color, music, and movement and a mirror is used to increase self-focus. The Use of a Learning Station to Increase Self-Control for Homework Completion The recent reform movement in education has seemed to trigger an increased use of homework (Bryan, Nelson, & Mathur, 1995; Cooper & Nye, 1994). There are, however, a large number of children who fail to complete their homework and many others who complete homework with low rates of accuracy. From the students' perspective specific assignments go unfinished, because homework is either too difficult or too boring (Bryan, Nelson, & Mathur, 1995). >From the teacher's perspective students do not have the self-control needed to complete an assignment (Etzioni, 1984). Self-Control Skinner (1953) characterizes self-control as a two-response phenomenon--the response to be controlled and the response(s) emitted to control the rate of the target behavior. A person must control his or her own actions in order to produce the desired result. This takes different amounts of effort for different tasks. Self-control is considered to be a degree and not just an all-or-none phenomenon (Kazdin, 2001). Self-control techniques extend beyond behavior modification procedures to events that are not observable or not always readily observed. This elicits another group of problems (thoughts, images, fantasies, hallucinations, and dreams) that are not publicly observable (Kazdin, 2001). Self-control requires an individual to focus his or her attention to aspects of the self. Carver and Scheier (1981) reported the extent that attention is directed outward to the environment, self-focus is decreased. These researchers have theorized and reviewed evidence indicating that self-control requires an individual to focus his or her attention to aspects of the self (e.g., thoughts, feelings, physiological states, attitudes, values, previously learned strategies, and behavior). With decreased self-focus self-control becomes unachievable. They found that a mirror would direct a person's attention away from external stimuli allowing someone to better control their responses. Boredom Boredom is the other contributory factor, especially for older children in middle and high school. For example, significantly more 7th-9th graders (44%) reported boredom during homework than 5th-6th graders (35%) (Bryan & Nelson, 1994). If students perceive their homework will be boring they will complain and find other more interesting things to do (Bryan & Nelson, 1994). To address problems of boredom, students must have the self-control skills necessary to organize and sustain attention to their independent assignments. One way to get students to increase their self-control in order to begin and complete their homework is to make it more stimulating to decrease the boredom. The optimal stimulation theory states all living organisms have a physiological need for stimulation (Berlyne, 1960), which they can achieve through changing their activity level. Children are more likely to seek additional stimulation by talking, moving, touching things, and looking around at changes in their environments. The Learning Station The Learning Station (Hall & Zentall, 2000) is a freestanding three-sided panel. Each panel measures 40 cm. square and was covered with emerald green contact paper. The left panel contains a turquoise pocket that contains log sheets and a purple pocket that holds activity choice cards. There is a square mirror on the middle panel held. The right panel contains a yellow pocket for completed log sheets, a royal blue pocket for pencils, and a red pocket that stores an audiotape. …

A Vigilance Study of ADHD and Control Children: Event Rate and Extra-Task Stimulation

An experiment was conducted to compare the performance of ADHD and non-ADHD (control) children in a vigilance task. A group of 24 Chinese children with ADHD was identified by their high scores (i.e., 2 SD above mean) on the Conners' Teacher Rating Scale (CTRS). The children were given a computerized Continuous Performance Test—Auditory (CPT-A) whereby English letters of the alphabet were presented in audio mode (through a speaker) rather than in visual mode (on a monitor screen). Performances of the ADHD children on CPT-A were compared with a group of normal peers matched on sex, nonverbal IQ, and school performances. The effects of the event rate (fast vs. slow) and extra-task stimulation (Pic vs. No-pic) displayed on a computer screen were investigated. Performance on the CPT-A was analyzed in terms of error rates (commission and omission errors) and reaction time. It was found that children with ADHD generally performed worse than normal children in that the former made more commission errors and had longer reaction times. However, ADHD children's performance tended to “normalize” when extra-task stimulation was available, especially in conditions of the slow event rate. These results are discussed in the light of optimal stimulation theory and the information processing model of cognitive functioning of hyperactivity.

Acute aerobic exercise and affect: current status, problems and prospects regarding dose-response.

One of the assumptions underlying recent physical activity recommendations is that lower doses of activity (i.e. intensity and duration) are more enjoyable for the average person, thus leading to higher involvement and adherence rates. However, the veracity of this hypothesis can be questioned, since little is actually known regarding the association between activity doses and affective responses. The few preliminary attempts at the conceptual delineation of the dose-response relationship, all centred around an 'inverted-U' notion, are reviewed and criticised as lacking empirical foundation. Available meta-analyses, as well as the empirical literature on the role of exercise intensity and duration, are examined. Increased intensity appears to be associated with reduced positivity of affect during and immediately following an exercise bout. Intensity effects appear to be attenuated during recovery. Fitness and training status appear to become significant mediators of the exercise-affect relationship only at high intensities. With intensity being kept constant, different exercise bout durations have not been shown to have a differential impact on pre- to post-exercise affective changes. Recommendations for future research include: (i) a shift from categorical to dimensional conceptualisations and operationalisations of affect; (ii) the examination of psychological theories on the association between activation and affect (e.g. extraversion-introversion, sensation seeking, type A behaviour pattern and related self-evaluative tendencies, reversal theory, optimal stimulation theory, multidimensional activation theory and self-efficacy); (iii) the systematic and theory-based examination of in-task and post-exercise affective responses; (iv) the incorporation of the parameter of fitness and/or activity status in research designs; and (v) the re-evaluation of methods for selecting exercise intensity levels.

Production deficiencies in elicited language but not in the spontaneous verbalizations of hyperactive children.

Setting and task conditions were assessed for their effects on the language of hyperactive children. Verbal data were recorded for 22 hyperactive children and 22 elementary-age controls during four storytelling tasks and transitions, and under two conditions of a nonverbal performance task in a counterbalanced order. Findings were that hyperactive children were more spontaneously talkative than their classmates during transitions and nonverbal tasks (nonelicited conditions) but were less talkative when they were asked to tell stories (elicited conditions). These findings and those attributable to the story comparisons were interpreted in line with the optimal stimulation theory, which suggests that minimal stimulus input (delays and nonelicited conditions) precipitate excessive verbal activity from hyperactive children. Production deficiencies, on the other hand, were specific to type of stimulus input to be processed. Stories requiring organization and planning without the external structure or salience of visual cues (a sequence of word cards or pictures) produced production deficiencies.

The attraction of color for active attention-problem children.

The optimal stimulation theory proposes that attention disordered hyperactive children are less tolerant than their normal peers of rote, minimally stimulating tasks and thus should more readily attend to color added to such tasks. Due to this attentional selectivity, color added to relevant features should produce improved performance, especially for this group. To test this hypothesis, 17 children, rated high in attention and activity problems, were matched on the basis of age and performance to 17 controls. Matched pairs were randomly assigned to stimulation order (colored stimuli first and black stimuli second session or the reverse order) and to level of emphasis-placement (emphasis added to relevant letter parts or added to randomly selected letter stimuli) counterbalanced for stimulation order. Findings in support of the theory were that attention-problem children performed better with color emphasis placed on relevant detail than when it was assigned to randomly selected letters. Differential responding was significant for experimental but not control children.

Self-regulation of stimulation for ADD-H children during reading and vigilance task performance.

The present study examines the hypothesis that motor responses added into rote tasks would modulate the sensation-seeking activity and impulsive errors of hyperactive (ADD-H) children. To this purpose 22 ADD-H and 25 comparison children were administered two repetitive tasks (word decoding and an auditory vigilance task) under both an active response and a passive response condition. Findings were that the impulsive errors, talking/noisemaking, and activity of ADD-H children was normalized (i.e., did not differ from comparison children) only in the high stimulation active response conditions. Behavioral improvements for ADD-H children were documented in both tasks in the active condition, but performance gains were found only in the vigilance task. The findings supported predictions derived from the optimal stimulation theory that the excessive activity and attraction to novel stimuli of ADD-H children can be channeled into appropriate instrumental motor and attention responses.

Effects of color stimulation and information on the copying performance of attention-problem adolescents.

The optimal stimulation theory proposes that hyperactive children are less tolerant of lower levels of arousal than nonhyperactive children and should thus derive greater gains from stimulation added to repetitive copying tasks than do comparisons. To test this hypothesis, 16 adolescents, rating high on attention and behavior problems, were matched on the basis of age and poor handwriting performance to 16 controls. Matched pairs were randomly assigned to treatment order (high-stimulation colored letters followed in 2 weeks by low-stimulation black letters or the reverse order) and to level of information (color added to difficult letter parts or added to randomly selected letters), counterbalanced for treatment order and level of information within each order. Errors and activity were subjected to a mixed-design analysis of covariance, with IQ the covariate. The major findings indicated that attention-problem adolescents performed better with high-stimulation task stimuli than with low, relative to the opposite performance pattern of controls. Different responding was significant for experimental but not for control children.

Hyperactive and Comparison Children's Response to Detailed VS. Global Cues in Communication Tasks

According to the optimal stimulation theory, hyperactive children suffer from insufficient arousal, expecially in contexts that provide minimal stimulation. In the present study hyperactive children were predicted to perform worse than controls on tasks requiring attention to detailed information because utilization of detailed cues requires narrowing and sustaining attentional focus (optimally produced by states of high arousal). Hyperactive and comparison children were presented with a series of receptive communication tasks requiring attention to (a) detailed cues alone, and (b) global cues followed by detailed cues or detailed cues followed by global cues, under conditions in which subjects were permitted to ask for clarifying cues or information. Findings demonstrated that hyperactive boys performed worse than controls in tasks which provided detailed cues alone. During tasks in which additional cues available were detailed, experimental subjects responded more impulsively than controls. Problems with detailed cues were not attributable to overall differences between groups in motivation, ability to request information, information processing speed, or nonspecific impulsivity. These findings suggest that hyperactive children may more readily process global than detailed information in tasks that are analogous to classroom listening tasks.

Fascination with Death as a Function of Need for Novel Stimulation

Optimal stimulation theory suggests that when an organism's level of stimulus input falls below its optimal range, the organism is then motivated to return its neurological excitation to its optimal range. If contemporary American society produces individuals who maintain a sense of boredom, powerlessness, and alienation, then they may possibly derive stimulation and consequently importance from highly arousing novel experiences such as violence and death. To test this hypothesis, boredom, alienation and stimulus-seeking were assumed to be indicative of decreased response to principle stimulation sources. Students were grouped into high/low variable groups. An author developed scale measured fascination with death. An analysis of variance revealed that persons both highly bored and highly alienated were indeed more interested in death-related events.