title: Attentional focus of students with hyperactivity during a word-search task.
abstract: Mirrors have been used to focus attention to aspects of the self (e.g., to known strategies, standards). We hypothesized that this could be important for students with hyperactivity/inattention, who typically direct attention outward to external novelty. In this study, we administered a partially solvable word puzzle to 43 middle school students, with and without hyperactivity/inattention, in the presence and absence of a mirror, counterbalanced for condition and form order. Differences between students with hyperactivity/inattention and comparisons in accuracy were found only in the no mirror condition. Furthermore, the beneficial effect of the mirror for children with hyperactivity/inattention was most pronounced for those who looked at the mirror. Findings were interpreted in terms of their potential to remedy the production deficits of these children.
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Studies, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA.
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Zentall
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Hall
authors.forename: D L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015146:Midwestern United States; D020377:Self Efficacy