Properties of attention during reading lessons.

A study investigated the attention of 116 children in 6 second- and third-grade classrooms while they participated in 4 lessons involving progressively more difficult stories. Analysis of videotapes of the lessons revealed that the likelihood of a lapse of attentio: was highest during the first 15 seconds of attention episodes. Lapses in attention were more likely among second graders than among third graders, among boys than among girls, in low groups than in middle groups, and in middle groups than in higher groups. The more difficult the story, the more likely were lapses in attention, especially among younger and less able students. Reading-group membership was more strongly related to attention than were reliable measures of childrens individual comprehension and fluency. A leading hypothesis to explain this finding is that reading groups have subcultures that differentially support wving attention.