O'Keeffe, Alisha (2022) Proactive Control in University Students with Varying ADHD Symptom Levels. Bachelor thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
Abstract Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has been associated with poor cognitive control mechanisms. This study uses the dual mechanism framework of cognitive control to investigate proactive control. Recent research suggests that specifically, proactive cognitive control is impaired in people with ADHD. This implies people with ADHD have poorer preparatory mechanisms. This paper uses a dimensional structure for ADHD conceptualising it as a spectrum of symptoms rather than using a binary categorical structure. The aim of this study is to contribute to the research on the functioning of proactive control in ADHD, and to investigate whether it is impaired in university students with varying levels of ADHD. The test materials included in this study are the task switching online task and the CAARS online questionnaire. First year psychology students completed the Task Switching task and were assessed for their level of ADHD symptoms on The Conners’ Adult ADHD Rating Scale (CAARS) questionnaire. The task switching task uses three cue levels before the task. The cues levels are alerting, informative and no cue. Alerting cues are used to conceptualise reactive cognitive control while controlling for the effect of increased vigilance. Informative cues are used to conceptualise proactive cognitive control. We expected reaction times to be faster for informative trials compared to alerting trials. This hypothesis was confirmed by analysis. To verify if proactive control is poorer for higher levels of ADHD, we tested if the difference between alerting and informative cue levels is related to the level of ADHD symptoms. The results found no significant impairment in proactive control for higher levels of ADHD symptoms. In conclusion, this study failed to find support for the idea that proactive control in impaired in ADHD, but this result remains inconclusive due to several limitations. Keywords: Proactive cognitive control, ADHD, dual mechanisms framework
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | S.M.H., Mohamed |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | None [Bachelor Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 29 Jun 2022 07:38 |
| Last Modified: | 29 Jun 2022 07:38 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/645 |
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