Effects Of Visual Selective Attention On Digital Cognitive Processing Of Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Number plays an important role in humam’s common work,life and study. How do people carry on the number processing and further mental representation? What factors affect the process of mental representation about number? These problems have always been the flourishing fields for researchers. Most of the studies about children’s abilities of numerical cognitive processing have shown that, children’s number processing speed increased and reaction time decreased with age added. People generally overlooked a problem in the research before, it about the different characteristics of visual selective attention may affected the number processing. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder(ADHD) children as a kind of special children, so abvious defects about attention and cognitive disorder are the main problems.The thesis consists of two studies. Study 1 investigated the visual selective attention impact on number distance effect of ADHD children’s number processing. Mixed experimental design method was used in the study, 2(clues effectiveness: effective tip/invalid tip) × 2(numerical comparison: small number/larger number) × 4(number distance: 1/2/3/4) × 7(grade: preschool to sixth grade). Numerical comparison was used as task under endogenous and exogenous attentions respectively. Study 2 investigated the visual selective attention influenced on ADHD children’s number processing SNARC effect. Mixed experimental design method was used in the study, 2(clues effectiveness: effective tip/invalid tip) × 2(reaction hand: left hand reaction/right hand reaction) × 4(numerical comparison: 1 is the number 1, 2/2 is the number 3, 4/3 is the number 6, 7/4 is the number 8/9) × 2(grade: fourth grade and sixth grade). Odd/even judgement was used as task under endogenous and exogenous attentions respectively.The results showed that, number distance effect existed in ADHD children’s numerical comparison task no matter under the condition of endogenous or exogenous attentions, but the age was later than normal children. Under the condition of endogenous attentions, the fifth grade’s ADHD children had number processing SNARC effect with effective clues in odd/even judgment tasks, the age was later than normal children, the fourth to sixth grade’s ADHD children did not have number processing SNARC effect with invalid clues. Under the condition of exogenous attentions, the fifth grade’s ADHD children also had number processing SNARC effect with effective clues in odd/even judgment tasks, the age was later than normal children. But the fourth grade’s ADHD children did not have number processing SNARC effect with invalid clues, it had obvious difference compared with fifth and sixth grade’s children. This suggested that the fourth grade’s ADHD children have not yet form mental number line, and not able to do numerical comparison corresponding with mental number line’s spatial location information.