Attention of hyperactive preschool children--electrodermal activity during auditory stimulation

Electrodermal activity during passive and active listening tasks for 4 hyperactive (from 3 yr., 9 mo. to 6 yr., 2 mo.) and 43 healthy preschool children (from 4 yr., 8 mo. to 6 yr., 5 mo.) was studied. The procedure consisted of the following phases: baseline recordings (3 min.), a passive listening task, instructions, and an active listening task. The hyperactive subjects tended to exhibit lower levels of arousal, as indicated by the frequency of spontaneous responses, and more marked habituation with repeated stimuli. Also, they tended not to show the increased responsivity expected when attention is active rather than passive. Hyperactive preschool children, moreover, are believed to have shorter attention spans.