Citation

Lundwall RA, Sgro JF, Fanger J. PLoS One 2018; 13(1): e0190724.

Affiliation

Sociology Department, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, United States of America.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Public Library of Science)

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0190724

PMID

29329307

Abstract

Compared to sustained attention, only a small proportion of studies examine reflexive attention as a component of everyday attention. Understanding the significance of reflexive attention to everyday attention may inform better treatments for attentional disorders. Children from a general population (recruited when they were from 9-16 years old) completed an exogenously-cued task measuring the extent to which attention is captured by peripheral cue-target conditions. Parents completed a questionnaire reporting their child's day-to-day attention. A general linear model indicated that parent-rated inattention predicted the increase in response time over baseline when a bright cue preceded the target (whether it was valid or invalid) but not when a dim cue preceded the target. More attentive children had more pronounced response time increases from baseline. Our findings suggest a link between a basic measure of cognition (response time difference scores) and parent observations. The findings have implications for increased understanding of the role of reflexive attention in the everyday attention of children.

Language: en