Four studies were designed to examine the effects of stimulus novelty on looking time, preference, and processing efficiency in hyperactive children. Two control groups were selected; normal children and nonhyperactive poor readers. According to underarousal theories of hyperactivity, the hyperactives should show a unique, heightened attraction to novel stimuli. / Novelty was defined in two ways, as incongruity and as unfamiliarity. The responses of all three groups varied systematically as a function of the changes in novelty. There was limited evidence that the hyperactives were unusually attracted to the novel materials. Although they initially spent more time viewing the incongruous stimuli, this heightened interest was short-lived. Furthermore, this attraction was not apparent in their preference judgments, or in their looking time for unfamiliar stimuli. Tests of recognition and speeded matching indicated that the hyperactives needed more time than normals to process both ordinary and novel stimuli. However, they did not take this extra time unless they were motivated by the presentation of incongruous stimuli or were guided by the experimenter. Poor readers, in contrast, showed no special attraction to novelty. They tended to adopt a slower free-viewing pace than normals, possibly due to difficulty processing complex materials. However, they did not differ from normal children in speed or accuracy of matching simple stimuli.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.68528 |
| Date | January 1980 |
| Creators | Ain, Marilyn Esther. |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Psychology) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 000112508, proquestno: AAINK51840, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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