Literature review: visual search by children with and without ADHD.
OBJECTIVE
To summarize the literature that has employed visual search tasks to assess automatic and effortful selective visual attention in children with and without ADHD.


METHODS
Seven studies with a combined sample of 180 children with ADHD (M age = 10.9) and 193 normally developing children (M age = 10.8) are located.


RESULTS
Using a qualitative approach, the authors find no group difference in automatic search, but results are variable for effortful serial search. Using a novel, graphical approach, the authors find that the ADHD group demonstrated less efficient serial search. This overall effect is explored as a function of search display complexity. Children with ADHD search less efficiently at the lowest and highest levels of display complexity.


CONCLUSIONS
Children with ADHD show impairments in aspects of their effortful visual selective attention, as measured by visual search.
Mullane
Jennifer C
JC
Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. jcmullan@dal.ca
Klein
Raymond M
RM
D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity; D002648:Child; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D014796:Visual Perception