The validity of vigilance tasks in differential diagnosis of children referred for attention and learning problems

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the convergent and discriminant validity of vigilance measures of attention and impulsivity in children. One hundred children referred for evaluation of attention and learning problems were administered a battery of tests including two vigilance tasks, other laboratory measures of inattention and impulsivity, and parent and teacher ratings. It was predicted that vigilance task performance would correlate with teacher ratings and laboratory measures of inattention while correlations with ratings of aggressive behavior were predicted to be lower. Moderate correlations were obtained between the vigilance task scores and other laboratory measures of inattention and impulsivity. However, the vigilance scores did not correlate with teacher or parent ratings of behavior. A factor analysis, conducted to identify underlying dimensions of attention in the battery of tests, revealed strong source effects. The implications for use of vigilance measures in diagnosis are discussed.

The Relationship Between Intelligence and Performance on the Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA)

“…The results of the present study are inconsistent, however, with the results of work by Aylward, Gordon, and Verhulst (1997), Klee and Garfinkel (1983), Lovejoy and Rasmussen (1990), and Seidel and Joschko (1991). These four studies found a significant relationship between CPT performance and intelligence, but only between the ability to detect the target (errors of omission) and the intellectual measures that purportedly measure attention (Arithmetic subtest or FD factor).…”

Differences in Performance of ADHD Children on a Visual and Auditory Continuous Performance Test according to IQ

“…Earlier studies suggested that children with superior IQs made fewer errors due to a ceiling effect 18,23. In similar findings, intelligence potentially affected CPT performances of the child and adolescent patients in psychiatric hospitals36 and also of patients with attention and learning problems 37…”

Exploring selective attention in ADHD: visual search through space and time

“…Increased errors over trials did occur for the ADHD group in the conjunction baseline, but this may be due to aversion to delay (see above) rather than sustained attention difficulties. This finding can therefore be added to the studies that fail to show decrements in performance over time in this population (e.g., see van der Meere & Sergeant, 1988; Lovejoy & Rasmussen, 1990; Corkum & Siegel, 1993; Slusarek, Velling, Bunk, & Eggers, 2001, for examples).…”