My primary research interests concern the development of attention and comprehension processes, both in typically developing children and children diagnosed with ADHD. Much of the research uses television as a context for studying attention patterns and relations between attention and story comprehension. My colleague in clinical psychology, Richard Milich, and I recently finished data collection for a 5-year longitudinal study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. This longitudinal study examined the developmental progression of story comprehension in children with ADHD and typically developing children. By following two age cohorts, the study investigated changes in comprehension from 4 to 12 years of age in both groups of children. We currently are working on the development of intervention approaches to remedy story comprehension difficulties in children with ADHD.

A second research area involves a collaboration with Robert Lorch of the Department of Psychology and William Calderhead of the Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling. Funded in 2006 by the Institute of Educations Sciences, the 3-year project investigates effective ways to teach the logic of the scientific method to elementary school students. The results will have implications for science instruction and reduction of risks of academic difficulties. In addition to these two major areas, other research projects investigate adolescent substance abuse risk and prevention.

• Palmgreen, P., Lorch, E. P., Stephenson, M. T., Hoyle, R. H., & Donohew, L. (2007). Effects of ONDCP's Marijuana Initiative Campaign on high sensation-seeking youth. American Journal of Public Health, 97, 1644-1649.
• Acevedo-Polakovich, I. D., Lorch, E. P., & Milich, R. (2007). Comparing television use and reading in children with ADHD and non-referred children across two age groups. Media Psychology, 9, 447-472.
• Flake, R. A., Lorch, E. P., & Milich, R. (2007). Th eeffects of thematic importance on story recall among children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and comparison children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 35, 43-53.
• Lorch, E. P. (2007). Health, drugs, and values. In N. Pecora, J. P. Murray, & E. Wartella (Eds.), Children and television: 50 years of research (pp. 205-231). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
• Lorch, E. P., Berthiaume, K. S., Milich, R., & van den Broek, P. (2007). Story comprehension impairments in children with ADHD. In K. Cain & J. Oakhill (Eds.), Children's comprehension problems in oral and written language (pp. 128-156). NY: Guilford Press.
• Acevedo-Polakovich, I. D., Lorch, E. P., Milich, R., & Ashby, R. D. (2006). Disentangling the relation between television viewing and cognitive processes in children with ADHD and comparison children. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 160, 354-360.
• Flory, K., Milich, R., Lorch, E. P., Hayden, A. N., Strange, C., & Welsh, R. (2006). Online story comprehension among children with ADHD: Which core deficits are involved? Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 34, 850-862.
• Lorch, E. P., Milich, R., Astrin, C., C., & Berthiaume, K. S. (2006). Cognitive engagement and story comprehension in typically developing children and children with ADHD from preschool through elementary school. Development Psychology, 42, 1206-1219.