Laterality, Implicit Memory and Attention Disorder

Summary Children who presented behaviours characteristic of attention disorder/hyper‐activity deficit (ADHD), but who were functioning adequately in ordinary schools, were assessed on a range of tests including some focused particularly on cognitive abilities, including verbal and figural aspects of problem solving and creativity. An attempt was made to replicate an earlier study, incorporating refinements to the manner in which pupils were selected from the schools. In spite of cultural differences, the pattern of results substantially duplicated the earlier findings, suggesting a stable pattern of characteristics associated with ADHD and high intelligence. Specifically these children were found to have more mixed laterality and allergies, to gather and use more diverse, nonverbal and poorly focused information, and to show higher figural creativity than did high‐IQ children without attention problems. It was concluded that uncommon information was made use of by ADHD children when exhibiting novelty in nonverbal thinking. This supports Geschwind's prediction that high talent would be found in some types of learning‐disordered individuals.