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HYPERACTIVITY IN BOYS WITH ATTENTION-DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER: A UBIQUITOUS CORE SYMPTOM OR MANIFESTATION OF WORKING MEMORY DEFICITS?

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Date Issued:
2008
Abstract/Description:
Hyperactivity is currently considered a core and ubiquitous feature of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); however, an alternative model challenges this premise and hypothesizes a functional relationship between working memory (WM) and activity level. The current study investigated whether children's activity level is functionally related to WM demands associated with the domain-general central executive and subsidiary storage/rehearsal components using tasks based on Baddeley's (2007) WM model. Activity level was objectively measured 16 times per second using wrist- and ankle-worn actigraphs while 23 boys between 8 and 12 years of age completed control tasks and visuospatial/phonological WM tasks of increasing memory demands. All children exhibited significantly higher activity rates under all WM relative to control conditions, and children with ADHD (n=12) moved significantly more than typically developing children (n=11) under all conditions. Activity level in all children was associated with central executive but not storage/rehearsal functioning, and higher activity rates exhibited by children with ADHD under control conditions were fully attenuated by removing variance directly related to central executive processes.
Title: HYPERACTIVITY IN BOYS WITH ATTENTION-DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER: A UBIQUITOUS CORE SYMPTOM OR MANIFESTATION OF WORKING MEMORY DEFICITS?.
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Name(s): Bolden, Jennifer, Author
Rapport, Mark, Committee Chair
University of Central Florida, Degree Grantor
Type of Resource: text
Date Issued: 2008
Publisher: University of Central Florida
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: Hyperactivity is currently considered a core and ubiquitous feature of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); however, an alternative model challenges this premise and hypothesizes a functional relationship between working memory (WM) and activity level. The current study investigated whether children's activity level is functionally related to WM demands associated with the domain-general central executive and subsidiary storage/rehearsal components using tasks based on Baddeley's (2007) WM model. Activity level was objectively measured 16 times per second using wrist- and ankle-worn actigraphs while 23 boys between 8 and 12 years of age completed control tasks and visuospatial/phonological WM tasks of increasing memory demands. All children exhibited significantly higher activity rates under all WM relative to control conditions, and children with ADHD (n=12) moved significantly more than typically developing children (n=11) under all conditions. Activity level in all children was associated with central executive but not storage/rehearsal functioning, and higher activity rates exhibited by children with ADHD under control conditions were fully attenuated by removing variance directly related to central executive processes.
Identifier: CFE0002455 (IID), ucf:47702 (fedora)
Note(s): 2008-12-01
M.S.
Sciences, Department of Psychology
Masters
This record was generated from author submitted information.
Subject(s): ADHD
Working Memory
Hyperactivity
Activity Level
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002455
Restrictions on Access: campus 2009-11-01
Host Institution: UCF

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