Task‐unrelated thoughts of college students diagnosed as hyperactive in childhood

Abstract

Examined were the relationships between task‐unrelated thoughts (TUTs), self‐reported sensation seeking, retrospective self‐reported personality characteristics, laterality, eye dominance, and allergies in college students who were diagnosed in childhood as attention deficit/hyperactive disordered (ADHD) and in four control groups (high‐ and low‐activity males and females). Both spontaneous and deliberate TUTs were reported during a vigilance task. Left‐eye dominance was related to increased childhood hyperactive behaviors and to spontaneous TUTs. Of the five groups, subjects diagnosed as ADHD had more spontaneous TUTs and false alarms, whereas those subjects reporting high‐activity characteristics as children gave more deliberate TUTs and fewer false alarms, and low‐activity subjects responded with the fewest TUTs and false alarms. These results are consistent with the interpretation that in a boring task ADHD children have higher levels of nonconscious processing and poor inhibitory control and that these factors produce greater frequencies of spontaneous intrusive thoughts.