You are here

UCF Digital Collections ยป ETD Collection

ADHD AND WORKING MEMORY: THE IMPACT OF CENTRAL EXECUTIVE DEFICITS AND OVERWHELMING STORAGE/REHEARSAL CAPACITY ON OBSERVED INATTENTIVE BEHAVIOR

Download pdf | Full Screen View

Date Issued:
2009
Abstract/Description:
Inattentive behavior is considered a core and pervasive feature of ADHD; however, an alternative model challenges this premise and hypothesizes a functional relationship between working memory and inattentive behavior. The current study investigated whether inattentive behavior in children with ADHD is functionally related to domain-general central executive and/or subsidiary storage/rehearsal components of working memory. Objective observations of children's attentive behavior by independent observers were conducted while children with ADHD (n=15) and typically developing children (n=14) completed 10 counterbalanced tasks that differentially manipulated central executive, phonological storage/rehearsal, and visuospatial storage/rehearsal demands. Results of latent variable and effect size confidence interval analyses revealed two conditions that completely accounted for the attentive behavior deficits in children with ADHD: (a) placing demands on central executive processing, the effect of which is evident under even low cognitive loads, and (b) overwhelming storage/rehearsal capacity, which has similar effects on children with ADHD and typically developing children but occurs at lower cognitive loads for children with ADHD. Collectively, the results challenge the current DSM-IV conceptualization of ADHD and indicate that inattentive behavior may be secondary to underlying working memory deficits.
Title: ADHD AND WORKING MEMORY: THE IMPACT OF CENTRAL EXECUTIVE DEFICITS AND OVERWHELMING STORAGE/REHEARSAL CAPACITY ON OBSERVED INATTENTIVE BEHAVIOR.
39 views
20 downloads
Name(s): Kofler, Michael, Author
Rapport, Mark, Committee Chair
University of Central Florida, Degree Grantor
Type of Resource: text
Date Issued: 2009
Publisher: University of Central Florida
Language(s): English
Abstract/Description: Inattentive behavior is considered a core and pervasive feature of ADHD; however, an alternative model challenges this premise and hypothesizes a functional relationship between working memory and inattentive behavior. The current study investigated whether inattentive behavior in children with ADHD is functionally related to domain-general central executive and/or subsidiary storage/rehearsal components of working memory. Objective observations of children's attentive behavior by independent observers were conducted while children with ADHD (n=15) and typically developing children (n=14) completed 10 counterbalanced tasks that differentially manipulated central executive, phonological storage/rehearsal, and visuospatial storage/rehearsal demands. Results of latent variable and effect size confidence interval analyses revealed two conditions that completely accounted for the attentive behavior deficits in children with ADHD: (a) placing demands on central executive processing, the effect of which is evident under even low cognitive loads, and (b) overwhelming storage/rehearsal capacity, which has similar effects on children with ADHD and typically developing children but occurs at lower cognitive loads for children with ADHD. Collectively, the results challenge the current DSM-IV conceptualization of ADHD and indicate that inattentive behavior may be secondary to underlying working memory deficits.
Identifier: CFE0002695 (IID), ucf:48201 (fedora)
Note(s): 2009-08-01
Ph.D.
Sciences, Department of Psychology
Doctorate
This record was generated from author submitted information.
Subject(s): ADHD
working memory
attention
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0002695
Restrictions on Access: campus 2010-06-01
Host Institution: UCF

In Collections