Date of Award
8-1-2013
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Kibby, Michelle
Second Advisor
Habib, Reza
Abstract
One hypothesis regarding the etiology of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), is to conceptualize the disorder as an "inhibition" disorder. Furthermore, it has been suggested that inhibition is not a single all-encompassing construct, but rather a series of closely related processes. There has been limited examination as to whether children with ADHD are impaired on measures of cognitive inhibition (also known as proactive and retroactive interference). This project examined children with ADHD's susceptibility to proactive and retroactive interference in both verbal and visual-spatial modalities in comparison to typically developing children utilizing a novel coding system of the Children's Memory Scale (CMS). It was found that children with ADHD exhibited greater levels of visual-spatial retroactive interference than their typically developing peers. Additionally, children with ADHD did not differ from controls on any measure of verbal interference. Implications for clinical practice and future directions for research are discussed.
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