Evaluating the visual and auditory attention of gifted students

The literature review indicates that attention tests used in Turkey are adaptations from foreign sources to Turkish, are aimed at the general population, and focus only on one or two types of attention. The need for an attention test specifically designed for the Turkish context and targeting gifted children represents a significant gap. This study aimed to develop auditory and visual attention tests to evaluate the attention levels of gifted students in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades. For this purpose, attention tests focusing on the selective, divided, and alternating dimensions of auditory and visual attention have been developed for gifted children. Reliability and validity analyses showed that the visual attention test had an acceptable internal consistency with a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.70. In contrast, the auditory attention test, with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.53, indicated the need for further improvement. Results demonstrated that gifted students scored higher on auditory and visual attention tests than non-gifted students, and the statistically significant differences indicated superior attentional skills in this group. The developed auditory and visual attention tests are expected to significantly contribute to the education of gifted children, fill an essential gap in the literature, and complement other commonly used assessment tools.