How Effort Allocation Deficits result in Impaired Cognitive Performance including Interference Control in Students with ADHD: a Dimensional Approach.

Grooten, Jesse (2022) How Effort Allocation Deficits result in Impaired Cognitive Performance including Interference Control in Students with ADHD: a Dimensional Approach. Bachelor thesis, Psychology.

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Abstract

Background: ADHD is commonly associated with cognitive impairments. However, some studies have indicated that cognitive abilities in ADHD are not impaired, but may be negatively affected by an impaired self-regulation system that is supposed to efficiently allocate effort. Using the cognitive energetic model, the study hypothesizes and analyses whether the effects of effort allocation difficulties, typically observed in ADHD performance on simple tasks in children, are also observable in the more complex Stroop task in adults and whether these difficulties negatively impact cognitive performance as ADHD symptoms increase. Methods: Seventy-one first year Psychology students with varying levels of ADHD symptomatology, measured with the Conners’ Adult Rating Scale, performed an online computerized Stroop task which was adjusted to include three stimulus presentation rate conditions. Effort allocation was measured as the difference in reaction time and accuracy performance between medium and slow conditions and fast and medium conditions respectively. The performances were compared with a dimension of ADHD symptoms. Results: No associations were found between ADHD symptomatology and performance on the Stroop task in either the Reaction Time, Accuracy or Congruency conditions. Conclusions: The present study indicates that students with varying levels of ADHD symptoms were equal in their effort regulation on the Stroop task. The study had several limitations, the most important of which was the use of online testing. The study was the first study to test effort allocation in an online setting. Keywords: cognitive-energetic-model, effort allocation, interference control, stimulus presentation rate, ADHD, Stroop task.

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor)
Supervisor name:	Borger, N.A. and Meer, E.M. van der
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	None [Bachelor Psychology]
Date Deposited:	25 Jul 2022 07:53
Last Modified:	25 Jul 2022 07:53
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/1116

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