Concept learning in hyperactive and normal children

Hyperactivity is a common presenting symptom among children seen in psychiatric clinics, and refers to an excessive level of activity which is sufficiently sustained to become a serious source of complaint. Until recently interest in the hyperactive child was confined to the psychiatric literature. As a result, most of the information currently available deals with questions of diagnosis and treatment. The psychological functioning of the hyperactive child has received little attention, although some information on it has been presented in the form of incidental findings. In order to meet this need for objective, controlled data, a research project, in which the writer participated, was designed to study the behaviour of hyperactive children in a variety of test situations. The specific concern of the experiment reported in the present thesis was the behaviour of hyperactive children in a controlled learning situation, using a concept formation task