University of Louisville
An Examination of Attention Abilities and Comprehension in Children of Poverty
Institution
University of Louisville
Faculty Advisor/ Mentor
Barbara Burns
Abstract
This study examines the relationship between aspects of attention and comprehension of a televised story in children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. A method of looking at three attention networks is used to measure attentional abilities, including orienting, alerting, and executive function. The method involves three computerized games, which tap into these three networks. A naturalistic TV viewing task is used to assess comprehension of both factual and causal information of a story. In this task there are two conditions, toys available to play with while watching the program and no toys present. Results show that children did significantly better on factual questions than on causal questions overall. Also, children who did well on the causal questions also had lower reaction times on the orienting and alert attention tasks. We also found that in the toys present condition, children who did well on the factual questions had lower reaction times on the orienting and alerting attention tasks. However, there were no significant differences in factual questions in the toys absent condition. We conclude that there may be a relationship between being able to understand causal relations and using abilities such as orienting, shifting and maintaining attention. These abilities may also be needed to perform well on factual questions when a distracter is present.
An Examination of Attention Abilities and Comprehension in Children of Poverty
This study examines the relationship between aspects of attention and comprehension of a televised story in children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. A method of looking at three attention networks is used to measure attentional abilities, including orienting, alerting, and executive function. The method involves three computerized games, which tap into these three networks. A naturalistic TV viewing task is used to assess comprehension of both factual and causal information of a story. In this task there are two conditions, toys available to play with while watching the program and no toys present. Results show that children did significantly better on factual questions than on causal questions overall. Also, children who did well on the causal questions also had lower reaction times on the orienting and alert attention tasks. We also found that in the toys present condition, children who did well on the factual questions had lower reaction times on the orienting and alerting attention tasks. However, there were no significant differences in factual questions in the toys absent condition. We conclude that there may be a relationship between being able to understand causal relations and using abilities such as orienting, shifting and maintaining attention. These abilities may also be needed to perform well on factual questions when a distracter is present.