Virginia Douglas

Virginia I. Douglas ( – ) was a Canadian psychologist. She was a professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, noted for her contributions to the study of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Biography Douglas was born in London, Ontario to a Scottish family. She completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at Queen's University in 1948.

Douglas died on December 8, 2017, at her home in Halifax, Nova Scotia, at the age of 90.

In 1971, in a Presidential Address to the Canadian Psychological Association, Douglas presented her theory that deficits in sustained attention and impulse control were more likely to account for the difficulties of children with hyperkinesis than hyperactivity. Based on her research at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, Douglas argued that children with the disorder experienced deficits in sustained attention that could even emerge under conditions where no distractions existed. Douglas’s research and ideas were published the following year in the seminal article Stop, look and listen: The problem of sustained attention and impulse control in hyperactive and normal children. This paper became the most cited in the field and shifted the focus of hyperkinesis research from hyperactivity to attentional problems.

Previous to Douglas’ 1972 article Stop, look and listen: The problem of sustained attention and impulse control in hyperactive and normal children, ADHD was referred to as hyperkinesis. It was widely believed that hyperactivity, not attentional problems, was the main factor underlying this disorder. As a result of Douglas’s research, attention deficit disorder (ADD) with or without hyperactivity was included in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III).

Douglas's research on ADHD expanded to the areas of learning, perception, cognition, memory, and neuropsychology. Following her paper, “Stop, look, and listen”, Douglas theorized that deficits in any one of these components might contribute to the difficulties experienced by individuals with ADHD.

Attentional: effortful attention Inhibitory: control of impulsive, inappropriate responding Strategic (organizational): processes that guide and direct cognitive processing Douglas emphasized the importance of correctly identifying which of the three components underlies symptom-related behaviour in any given individual with ADHD. For example, performance failure may be falsely attributed to executive problems (e.g. working memory) when the fundamental problem is a deficit in attention (e.g. the effortful aspect of cognitive processing) or inhibitory control (e.g. the inability to inhibit a prepotent response).

Awards 2004 - CPA Gold Medal for Distinguished Lifetime Contributions to Canadian Psychology 1980 - CPA Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology as a Profession (first recipient of this award) 1977 - Canadian Silver Jubilee Medal

Selected works

Douglas, V. I. (2005). Cognitive deficits in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A long-term follow-up. Canadian Psychology, 46, 23-31. doi:10.1037/h0085821 Douglas, V. I. (1999). Cognitive control processes in Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. In H. C. Quay, & A. E. Hogan (Eds.), Handbook of disruptive behavior disorders (pp. 105–138). New York: Plenum. Berman, T., Douglas, V.I., & Barr, R.G. (1998). Effects of Methylphenidate on complex cognitive processing in Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 108, 90-105. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.108.1.90 Douglas, V. I., Parry, P., Marton, P., & Garson, C. (1976). Assessment of a cognitive training program for hyperactive children. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 4, 389-410. doi:10.1007/BF00922535 Douglas, V. I. (1972). Stop, look, and listen! The problem of sustained attention and impulse control in hyperactive and normal children. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 4, 259-282. doi:10.1037/h0082313