Difficulties in Comprehending Causal Relations

¶ … Difficulties in Comprehending Causal Relations Among Children With ADHD: The Role of Cognitive Engagement," from the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, published in 2004. The general research topic of the article reviewed is ADHD in children, and more specifically comprehension and memory processes in children with this condition. Child participants were observed in several situations that were designed to measure the attention levels of the children, as well as their ability to recall details. There were many valid points made by the researchers involved in this case, however there are also several critiques that can be made about their methods and conclusions.

There has been only a small amount of specific research done on the subject of comprehension and memory processes for complex information in ADHD affected children. These researchers utilized televised stories (TV shows) to test the participating children. The TV shows were shown to children, some with ADHD and others without any learning disabilities. The experiments were done in a room with toys, and again in a room without toys as distractions. The researchers used 70 children with ADHD, and 64 children without ADHD. The children who were being medicated for ADHD did not take their medication on the day of the test.

The results show that without the toys as a distraction, ADHD and non-ADHD children have very similar test results; 90% visual attention is paid to the television by all children if there is not a source of distraction. These children also had similar test results when asked questions to show their understanding and recollection of the show they watched. However, when toys (distractions) were added to the experiment, there was a very measurable difference between the ADHD children and non-ADHD children in their ability to understand causal relations and understanding of factual events from the TV show.

There are several reasons that the researchers propose may be the cause of this change when toys are added to the experiment. Children with ADHD (as well as adults with ADHD) do not keep their visual attention fixed in one place for as long as non-ADHD children. Since they are changing the focus of their attention, and they look at the television for shorter amounts of time, they are not as able to completely follow the story. Looking at the television for longer amounts of time has been shown to correspond with greater cognitive engagement, meaning the children are thinking more about what they are watching. Attentional inertia means that the longer a look at something is held or maintained, the more likely a person is to continue looking. In the first few seconds that a look is held, it is most likely to stop; if a look is held for more than a few seconds, the person is more likely to maintain the look. This theory of attentional inertia is supported by this specific ADHD study. Additionally, evidence from this study links ADHD with overall difficulty in understanding causal relations, as well as supporting the theories that longer looks lead to higher sustained cognitive engagement, and that ADHD children have shorter looks than non-ADHD children.

Attentional inertia is linked to cognitive engagement. The reasons presented as to why this is true include that long looks cross content boundaries more than short looks do. In this case, the child watching television would be able to connect events that happened over a distance of time. Longer looks at the television may also be indicative that the person is processing story content deeper than if there were only short looks being made.

The overall conclusion of this research study is that children with ADHD are no less capable of comprehending information from stories presented in television shows than non-ADHD children. However, if there are distractions present, ADHD children will not pay as much attention to the television, and therefore will not have as complete of an understanding of the story presented as non-ADHD children which did not become distracted by the toys. This is an important finding because it shows that ADHD children are no less able to comprehend material in, for example, a school setting than other children. Educational problems are caused by there being more entertaining distractions available than the lessons being taught in class. Understanding this as the cause of failing grades can lead teachers to being able to modify lessons and teaching processes to suit the learning styles of ADHD children in their class. Many teachers mistakenly assume that ADHD children need "easier" or "dumbed down" material than other children, or that they simply cannot be expected to be successful in an academic setting. However, this is not true, and the same material can be understood by ADHD children as long as it is presented in a way that holds their attention.