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ADHD AND STOP-SIGNAL BEHAVIORAL INHIBITION: IS MEAN REACTION TIME CONTAMINATED BY EXPOSURE TO INTERMITTENT STOP-SIGNALS?

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Date Issued:
2008
Abstract/Description:
The current study investigates two recently identified threats to the construct validity of behavioral inhibition as a core deficit of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) based on the Stop-signal task: calculation of mean reaction time from go-trials presented adjacent to intermittent stop-trials, and non-reporting of the stop-signal delay metric. Children with ADHD (n=12) and typically developing children (TD) (n=11) were administered the standard stop-signal task and three variant stop-signal conditions. These included a No-Tone condition administered without the presentation of an auditory tone; an Ignore-Tone condition that presented a neutral (i.e., not associated with stopping) auditory tone; and a second Ignore-Tone condition that presented a neutral auditory tone after the tone had been previously paired with stopping. Children with ADHD exhibited significantly slower and more variable reaction times to go-stimuli, and slower stop-signal reaction times (SSRT) relative to TD controls. Stop-signal delay (SSD) was not significantly different between groups, and both groups' go-trial reaction times slowed following meaningful tones. Collectively, these findings corroborate recent meta-analyses and indicate that previous findings of stop-signal performance deficits in ADHD reflect slower and more variable responding to visually presented stimuli and concurrent processing of a second stimulus, rather than deficits of motor behavioral inhibition.
Title: ADHD AND STOP-SIGNAL BEHAVIORAL INHIBITION: IS MEAN REACTION TIME CONTAMINATED BY EXPOSURE TO INTERMITTENT STOP-SIGNALS?.
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Name(s): Alderson, Robert, 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: The current study investigates two recently identified threats to the construct validity of behavioral inhibition as a core deficit of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) based on the Stop-signal task: calculation of mean reaction time from go-trials presented adjacent to intermittent stop-trials, and non-reporting of the stop-signal delay metric. Children with ADHD (n=12) and typically developing children (TD) (n=11) were administered the standard stop-signal task and three variant stop-signal conditions. These included a No-Tone condition administered without the presentation of an auditory tone; an Ignore-Tone condition that presented a neutral (i.e., not associated with stopping) auditory tone; and a second Ignore-Tone condition that presented a neutral auditory tone after the tone had been previously paired with stopping. Children with ADHD exhibited significantly slower and more variable reaction times to go-stimuli, and slower stop-signal reaction times (SSRT) relative to TD controls. Stop-signal delay (SSD) was not significantly different between groups, and both groups' go-trial reaction times slowed following meaningful tones. Collectively, these findings corroborate recent meta-analyses and indicate that previous findings of stop-signal performance deficits in ADHD reflect slower and more variable responding to visually presented stimuli and concurrent processing of a second stimulus, rather than deficits of motor behavioral inhibition.
Identifier: CFE0002218 (IID), ucf:47881 (fedora)
Note(s): 2008-08-01
Ph.D.
Sciences, Department of Psychology
Doctorate
This record was generated from author submitted information.
Subject(s): Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
ADHD
Behavioral Inhibition
Stop-signal
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002218
Restrictions on Access: campus 2009-08-01
Host Institution: UCF

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