Distractibility in Hyperactive and Conduct‐Disordered Children

Abstract

Hyperactive children are often said to be inattentive and distractible. However, the results from a number of experimental studies are equivocal. To examine this discrepancy, a Chinese version of the Stroop Test was devised. Four groups of subjects recruited from a community sample of 1479 Chinese boys living in Hong Kong took part in the investigation. These were: (1) a pure hyperactive (HA) group; (2) a mixed hyperactive/conduct-disordered (HA + CD) group; (3) a pure conduct-disordered (CD) group; and (4) a normal (N) control group. The results revealed that HA children were more markedly affected by the introduction of distracting stimuli. This distractibility was probably a function of both stimulus potency and the random order in which stimuli were presented. The specificity of a greater distractibility to HA children indicates its diagnostic value with regard to hyperactivity. The failure to find a similar deficit in HA + CD children raises questions about the clinical identity of this mixed diagnostic group.

Early concurrent and longitudinal symptoms of ADHD and ODD: relations to different types of inhibitory control and working memory

“…Indeed, the results showed that interference control within task, interference control outside task, and prepotent response inhibition predicted independent parts of the variance in ADHD symptoms two years later. These results contrast with Barkley's (1997) proposition and the previous empirical findings of, for example, Leung and Connolly (1996) that it is interference within task rather than interference outside the task that seems most important in relation to ADHD. These inconsistencies could be a result of the different developmental levels of the samples studied (preschool vs. school age).…”

Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: Constructing a unifying theory of ADHD.

“…In a previous review (Barkley et al, 1992), six such studies were located, five of which found children with ADHD to take more time and make more errors than control children during the interference portion of the task. Four more studies produced similar results (Krener et al, 1993;Leung & Connolly, 1996;Pennington et al, 1993;Seidman et al, 1996). The consistency of such findings across studies is striking despite differences in cultures, group selection procedures, and sample sizes.…”

“…It suggests that a deficiency in the control of interference from prepotent responses is reliably associated with ADHD. Group differences could not be attributed to comorbid learning or conduct disorders (Leung & Connolly, 1996;Pennington et al, 1993;Seidman et al, 1996), which argues for the specificity of these differences to ADHD. Neuroimaging research with this task has identified the orbital-prefrontal regions, particularly the right prefrontal region, as being involved in its performance (Bench et al, 1993;Vendrell et al, 1995).…”

Latent Inhibition and Asymmetrical Visual-Spatial Attention in Children with ADHD

“…Although at one time it was generally accepted that ADHD children are more distractible than normals, this position has become more controversial (e.g., Nigg, 2001). Indeed, some data indicate that children with ADHD are distracted by irrelevant stimuli more than controls (e.g., Brodeur & Pond, 2001;Leung & Connolly, 1996), and other data suggest no such differences (e.g., Heaton et al, 2001).…”