Field News

Abstract

The effects of increased environmental stimulation on the performance of hyperactive children appear to depend on the locus of that stimulation. Laboratory research has suggested that increased distal and peripheral stimulation reduce activity and may improve performance; the effects of increased within-task stimulation have not been conclusive. The present study sought to test the effects of within-task stimulation on activity and on performance of an academic spelling task in a classroom setting. Hyperactive and normal children learned a set of spelling words with or without added color, movement, and increased size in a repeated measures design. The results support the view that (a) hyperactive children have more difficulty than normals separating the relevant aspects of a task from additional within-task stimulation and so show a slower adjustment to high levels of within-task stimulation (i.e., make more errors initially), and (b) high levels of activity during learning predict later performance deficits for both hyperactive and normal children. The increased activity during learning acquisition brought about by added within-task stimulation can be interpreted as incipient support for Keogh’s hypothesis that motor activity may disrupt information acquisition in hyperactive children (23).