Developmental and individual differences in children's on-line representations of dynamic social events

Developmental and clinical differences in children's on-line understanding of ongoing social events were examined. Boys with (n = 38) and without (n = 41) Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) were compared. Prior social schemes and integrative processes were hypothesized to influence children's representation of incoming social cues. Younger children and children with ADHD were expected to differ from older children and children without ADHD, respectively, in what they encoded and how they organized the encoded information. Differences in on-line representation were postulated to underlie differences in children's recall and social reasoning. Children's prior social schemes, looking time and on-line verbal protocols, recall, and social reasoning were assessed. Younger boys and ADHD boys showed less integrated on-line representations, accounting for poorer recall and reasoning.