Role of attention in the reaction-time performance of mentally retarded adolescents.

This study was designed to explore overt indices of attending behavior during a simple reaction-time (RT) task in order to assess the nature of attention problems that presumably serve to impair efficient RT performance in retarded individuals. In order to achieve this purpose, RT scores and degree of off-task glancing during the preparatory interval were compared for groups of mentally retarded and nonretarded adolescents. Results indicated that retarded participants were significantly slower in RT performance and also exhibited a greater degree of off-task glancing than did nonretarded participants. The frequent off-task glancing exhibited by retarded participants was interpreted to be reflective of inattention to task; it was suggested that this form of inattention was at least partially responsible for their slower RT performance. Suggestions for future research and methodological implications of these findings were discussed.