Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a childhood condition whose characteristic behaviours of hyperactivity, inattention and impulsivity are salient in school settings. Teachers' actions and decisions when working with children who demonstrate behaviours consistent with ADHD can be expected to be impacted by their knowledge of ADHD, and their attitude toward teaching such children. Teachers are exposed to numerous sources of inconsistent information about ADHD during their training and classroom experience. The formation of attitudes in response to such complexity is poorly understood. The present research used models of attitude content, structure and strength to investigate the formation of teachers' knowledge of ADHD and attitudes toward teaching children who display its characteristics. The results are reported in journal article form comprising studies reported in Chapters 2 to 4. ... The findings from this project carry practical implications for teacher training on ADHD, and for school psychologists. Strong attitudes were shown to develop via combinations of direct, indirect and personal experiences with ADHD, and via amount and structural consistency of information and thought about ADHD. The results highlight the need to investigate such complex attitudes in ecologically valid ways. The development of models of attitude strength is important for understanding attitudes toward other social issues that polarise opinions and have enduring consequences, such as global warming or genetic modification of crops. Like ADHD, these topics are based on large amounts of structurally inconsistent information. Thus, the research reported in this thesis pertains to the formation of complex, real-life attitudes and may generalise to other multifaceted, personally relevant attitude objects.

This thesis investigates L2 structural priming in learners of English and the possible role of structural priming in second language acquisition. Three picture description production priming experiments were carried out in which speakers were exposed to prime sentences exhibiting a specific target structure. A pre- and post-test design was deployed to measure learning effects. In Experiment 1, fifty two L2 English speakers took part in a structural priming experiment targeting the production of get passives (e.g., the woman got arrested). Priming and learning effects were weak and were manifested in production of non-get passives. In contrast, in Experiment 2, where thirty eight L2 English speakers took part in another structural priming experiment targeting the production of stranded prepositions in relative clauses (e.g., a bed is something you sleep on), priming and learning effects were strong. The findings of learning through structural priming are interpreted as evidence of implicit learning of L2 structure. However, when the stranded preposition structure was primed in a different sentential context (i.e., the bed was too uncomfortable to sleep on) in a third experiment (n=40) only a weak priming effect emerged and there appeared to be no significant learning effect. These disparate findings suggest that the strength of L2 structural priming and subsequent learning effects might be modulated by the target structure. Implications for second language teaching and learning and theories of second language acquisition are discussed.