Objective: A previous factor analysis of the Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CCPT) indicates that the test measures 5 sub-functions of attention, namely "focused attention," "hyperactivity/impulsivity," "sustained attention," "vigilance," and "change in control." The present study further…

Significant motivations and incentives exist for young-adult students to seek a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). With ADHD information readily accessible on the Internet, today's students are likely to be symptom educated prior to evaluation. This may result in false-positive diagnoses, particularly when students are…

The Predominantly Inattentive (PI) and Combined (CB) subtypes of AD/HD differ in cognitive tempo, age of onset, gender ratio, and comorbidity, yet a differentiating endophenotype has not been identified. The aim of this study was to test rigorously diagnosed PI, CB, and typical children on measures selected for their potential to reveal…

Seven different laboratory measures of impulsivity were administered to a group of 165 school-aged boys. Parents' and teachers' ratings of Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder and Oppositional/Defiant Disorder were also obtained. Factor analyses of impulsivity measures revealed the existence of a strong Inhibitory Control Factor including…

Objective/Method: The Conner's Continuous Performance Test (CPT) was administered to four groups of adult college students who self-referred for comprehensive psychoeducational evaluation and received either no diagnosis (n = 30) or a diagnosis of ADHD (n = 26), a psychiatric disorder (n = 17), or various cognitive deficits (n = 22). Results: The…

Objective: To examine the ability of the flicker task to demonstrate greater utility in discriminating performance in young adults with and without ADHD compared to the Conners' CPT (CCPT). Method: Flicker task and CCPT performance were compared between an ADHD (n = 28) and control (n = 30) group of college students. Results: This study replicated…

This study used a double-dissociation design to evaluate whether children with ADHD demonstrated specific deficits relative to children with Reading Disorders. Recent theory suggests that ADHD children have deficits in time perception and working memory, whereas RD children have deficits in phonological decoding. The performance of 113…

Adolescents with substance use and conduct disorders have high rates of aggression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), all of which have been characterized in part by impulsivity. Developing measures that capture impulsivity behaviorally and correlate with self-reported impulsivity has been difficult. One promising behavioral…

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess heritability of activity, attention, and impulsivity by comparing young monozygotic (MZ) twins with dizygotic (DZ) twins using objective measures. Method: The OPTAx test is an infrared motion analysis to record the movement pattern during a continuous performance test. Seventeen MZ and 12 same…

The ecological validity of the Conners' Continuous Performance Test II (CPT-II) was examined using a sample of 206 first- and second-grade children. Children's CPT-II scores were correlated with observations of inattentive/hyperactive behavior during CPT-II administration, observations of children's behavior during analogue academic task,…