ADHD and working memory: the impact of central executive deficits and exceeding storage/rehearsal capacity on observed inattentive behavior.
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.
Children's Learning Clinic-IV, Department of Psychology, University of Central Florida, P.O. Box 161390, Orlando, FL 32816, USA.
Michael J
MJ
Kofler
Mark D
MD
Rapport
Jennifer
J
Bolden
Dustin E
DE
Sarver
Joseph S
JS
Raiker
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior / Q000523:psychology*; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014888:Wechsler Scales