Title

ADHD and Working Memory: The Impact of Central Executive Deficits and Exceeding Storage/Rehearsal Capacity on Observed Inattentive Behavior

Authors

Authors

M. J. Kofler; M. D. Rapport; J. Bolden; D. E. Sarver;J. S. Raiker

Comments

Authors: contact us about adding a copy of your work at STARS@ucf.edu

Abbreviated Journal Title

J. Abnorm. Child Psychol.

Keywords

ADHD; Working memory; Attention; Central executive; ATTENTION-DEFICIT/HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER; PERVASIVELY; HYPERACTIVE-CHILDREN; SHORT-TERM-MEMORY; SELECTIVE ATTENTION; VALIDITY; RECOGNITION; RECALL; AGE; ADOLESCENTS; SUBTYPES; Psychology, Clinical; Psychology, Developmental

Abstract

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 deficits and inattentive behavior. The current study investigated whether inattentive behavior in children with ADHD is functionally related to the 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 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) exceeding 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.

Journal Title

Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology

Volume

38

Issue/Number

2

Publication Date

1-1-2010

Document Type

Article

DOI Link

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10802-009-9357-6

Language

English

First Page

149

Last Page

161

WOS Identifier

WOS:000274435200001

ISSN

0091-0627

Recommended Citation

"ADHD and Working Memory: The Impact of Central Executive Deficits and Exceeding Storage/Rehearsal Capacity on Observed Inattentive Behavior" (2010). Faculty Bibliography 2010s. 374.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/facultybib2010/374