Powers of Attention and Academic Achievement

Abstract

The frequency with which a group of academically underachieving teenage students complained of difficulties in concentration led to this exploratory investigation of relationships between powers of attention and academic achievement. These boys, who were participants in a summer academic potential program (APP) for underachievers at Brown University, were compared to a group of boys attending a National Science Foundation program (NSF) for capable students in terms of speed and accuracy of their performance on the Stroop Color-Word Test. Requiring in part that the boys name as rapidly as possible the hues in which color names were printed (e.g., “red” printed in green ink), the Color-Word Test seemed to present an experimental parallel to the complained of difficulties in concentration in the face of intruding thoughts. The NSF group was found to perform more rapidly and more accurately on every aspect of the experimental task. Analysis of their responses to two anxiety questionnaires showed the APP Ss avowing a significantly greater number of general manifest anxiety symptoms, while the NSF Ss admitted to a greater apprehensiveness around academic matters and examinations. Only the former difference was statistically significant. While the NSF Ss were strikingly more capable performers, the results of this preliminary study point to a number of questions concerning relationships among academic achievement, speed of response, attentional prowess, and anxiety that seem worthy of more elaborate investigation