Lecture Note-taking in Postsecondary Students with Self-Reported Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Taking and reviewing lecture notes is a prevalent activity that is related to higher test performance in higher education. Yet few studies have focused on the underlying cognitive variables related to lecture note-taking. The current study is an extension of previous studies on lecture note-taking (Peverly & Garner, 2010; Peverly et al., 2007; Peverly et al., 2010) to a disability population, specifically students reporting clinically significant symptoms of ADHD. The primary purpose of this dissertation was to determine if disability differences in lecture note-taking exist, and if they do, to examine the cognitive variables that might explain them. Participants included 22 postsecondary students with self-reported ADHD and 50 postsecondary students who served as controls. Students took notes on a videotaped lecture, reviewed their notes, and took a written recall test. The independent variables included disability status (i.e., self-reported ADHD and non-ADHD), attention, transcription fluency, verbal working memory, and listening comprehension. The dependent variables were quality of notes and essay performance. All measures were group administered. Results revealed that attention and listening comprehension were the only predictors of quality of notes, and disability status, quality of notes, and listening comprehension all predicted essay performance. Students with self-reported ADHD obtained lower scores on a written recall test and a measure of transcription fluency compared to non-ADHD peers, but did not differ in terms of quality of notes, attention, verbal working memory, or listening comprehension. There were also differences between males and females in terms of notes' quality and essay performance. Future research should examine the present findings in postsecondary students with confirmed ADHD to test for possible differences in outcomes due to confirmed versus self-reported diagnoses.