2003 Volume 51 Issue 1 Pages 22-32
A test battery purported to assess a range of attentional functions, including selective attention, sustained attention, response inhibition, and divided attention, was taken by 572 elementary school children (6 to 12 years old). Analysis of subtest scores revealed the developmental course of attentional functions in children without disabilities. On the basis of the data, we constructed norms which allowed us to convert raw subtest scores into grade-scaled scores. Correlational analysis indicated that the subtest scores were ascribable to selective and sustained attentional components. Moreover, correlations between the subtest scores and IQ were found to be very small when age was partialed out. From an examination of the relation between the subtest scores and teachers' ratings of inattention, we found that, in comparison with grade-matched controls, first-to fourth-graders who were rated as inattentive showed poorer performance on the sustained attention indices, but not on the selective attention index. In contrast, inattentive fifth- and sixth-graders' selective attention was inferior, but their sustained attention was not significantly different from other children's. These findings suggest that the present test battery would help in the assessment of attentional problems.
