Is the Continuous Performance Task useful in research with ADHD children? Comments on a review.
A recent review of the Continuous Performance Task (CPT) as a research tool by Corkum and Siegel, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 34, 1217-1239, 1993, is criticized for insufficient covering of the relevant literature, disregard of the question of differentiation among clinical groups, and inadequacy of explanations of Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in terms of arousal, activation, and effort. An attention-deficit in ADHD children cannot be inferred from poor performance on a CPT. Impaired performance is anything but specific to ADHD children and is caused by a host of variables among which "attention" probably plays a minor role.
Koelega
H S
HS
Department of Psychopharmacology, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
D001288:Attention; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results