When is "impulsiveness" not impulsive? The case of hyperactive children's cognitive style.

On two computerized versions of the Matching Familiar Figures Test (MFFT; Kagan, Child Development, 36, 609-628, 1965) pervasively hyperactive and matched control children had to identify a target from among five similar foils. One version had a temporal structure similar to the manual MFFT and trial length was determined by response speed. Hyperactive children behaved in an "impulsive" manner; they responded more quickly and made more mistakes than controls. Despite this they completed each trial more quickly than controls by identifying the target. On the second version, the length of each trial was fixed at 45 seconds. Although both groups were equally "reflective", hyperactive children still made more mistakes. Implications of these results for research in impulse control in general and hyperactivity in particular are discussed.