Exploring the relationship between boredom and sustained attention.
Boredom is a common experience, prevalent in neurological and psychiatric populations, yet its cognitive characteristics remain poorly understood. We explored the relationship between boredom proneness, sustained attention and adult symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The results showed that high boredom-prone individuals (HBP) performed poorly on measures of sustained attention and showed increased symptoms of ADHD and depression. The results also showed that HBP individuals can be characterised as either apathetic-in which the individual is unconcerned with his/her environment, or as agitated-in which the individual is motivated to engage in meaningful activities, although attempts to do so fail to satisfy. Apathetic boredom proneness was associated with attention lapses, whereas agitated boredom proneness was associated with decreased sensitivity to errors of sustained attention, and increased symptoms of adult ADHD. Our results suggest there is a complex relationship between attention and boredom proneness.
Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada.
Ela
E
Malkovsky
Colleen
C
Merrifield
Yael
Y
Goldberg
James
J
Danckert
D000293:Adolescent; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D015982:Bias; D001887:Boredom; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011930:Reaction Time; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D055815:Young Adult