Assessment of Attention: Teachers' Rating Scales and Measures of Selective Attention

Abstract

The major objective of the study was to examine the relationship between teachers' rating of attention of their students and the performance of those students on three tests of selective attention. A new attention checklist was used for obtaining teachers' ratings of attention. The teachers rated 49 students in third- to sixth-grade classes. Each student then was tested on a version of the Posner Physical and Name-matching Test, the Stroop Test, and on an auditory vigilance test that requires selective activation and suppression of response. A minor objective of the study was to examine the correspondence between the checklist and the Conners inattention-passivity, conduct problems, and hyperactivity subscales. In analyzing the results in terms of correlations and factor loadings, a significant association between attention ratings on the one hand and Stroop interference and commission errors in vigilance on the other was clearly in evidence. We suggested that the underlying common cognitive process was resistance to distraction. The checklist and the inattention-passivity subscale, as expected, were correlated highly. Implications for psychoeducational assessment were discussed. It was suggested that the three objective measures of attention would help in the diagnosis of various attentional problems.