The effect of appealing distractors on the performance of hyperactive children.

The study investigated whether hyperactive children were more susceptible to appealing distractors than were normal children. Twenty hyperactive and 20 normal children performed arithmetic tasks under three levels of distraction: no distraction, low-appeal distraction, and high-appeal distraction. Hyperactive children were significantly more affected by both low- and high-appeal distractors than were the normal children.