Lower Attentional Skills predict increased exploratory foraging patterns.

ABSTRACT: When engaged in a search task, one needs to arbitrate between exploring and exploiting the environment to optimize the outcome. Many intrinsic, task and environmental factors are known to influence the exploration/exploitation balance. Here, in a non clinical population, we show that the level of inattention (assessed as a trait) is one such factor: children with higher scores on an ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) questionnaire exhibited longer transitions between consecutively retrieved items, in both a visual and a semantic search task. These more frequent exploration behaviours were associated with differential performance patterns: children with higher levels of ADHD traits performed better in semantic search, while their performance was unaffected in visual search. Our

SUBMITTER: Van den Driessche C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6662844 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature