Attentiveness in behaviorally deviant and nondeviant children: I. Auditory vigilance performance

The present study examined the vigilance performance of 16 behaviorally deviant and 16 nodeviant children and suggested that the vigilance paradigm might serve as a basis for a standardized test of continuous attention in children. The deviant and nondeviant children performed an auditory vigilance task administered on two separate occasions, 4 days apart. Performance during the first administration of the task deteriorated significantly for the deviant children as a function of time but not for the nondeviant ones. This finding was consistent with several prior clinical studies with children and suggested that the behaviorally deviant children were relatively less able to maintain a continuous level of attention. In addition, the vigilance procedure yielded relatively high test-retest reliability coefficients for both groups of children as well as performance which tended to vary as a function of chronological age.