Attention and distractibility during reading in hyperactive boys.

Nonhyperactive and clinically defined hyperactive boys were administered reading tasks under "quiet" and "distracting" conditions. Hyperactive boys were less attentive to task relevant stimuli and more attentive to task irrelevant stimuli than their controls. Our results demonstrate that the previous findings of inattentiveness among hyperactive boys on laboratory tasks can be generalized to more typical school activities such as reading.