Response time scores on a reflexive attention task predict a child's inattention score from a parent report

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.

Fig 1. Schematic of child task.

After the presentation of a fixation cross and variable delay, one, two, or no cues were presented and then disappeared. There was a brief delay and the target appeared on either the left or the right. Costs are associated with single cues that appeared opposite to where the target subsequently appeared.

Fig 2. An illustration of the reflexive attention task scores if they are divided by low and high parent-rated inattention scores.

In the post-hoc ANOVA, parent-rated inattention scores were significant predictors of continuous benefit bright and cost bright scores. Those children with lower parent-rated inattentiveness (better attention) had more pronounced slowing to bright cues whether they were valid or invalid.