Attention and ADHD

Question 1

What are the four types of attention?

Answer 1

Selective Attention: focusing on a specific aspect of experience that is relevant while ignoring others that are irrelevant.

Divided Attention: concentrating on more than one activity at a time.

Sustained Attention: the ability to maintain attention to a selected stimulus for a prolonged period of time.

Executive attention: involves action planning, allocating attention to goals, error detection and compensation, monitoring progress on tasks, and dealing with novel or difficult circumstances.

Question 2

Attention in the _____ of life is dominated by an orienting/investigative process.

Answer 2

First year.

Question 3

Young children make advances in executive attention and sustained attention but are likely to pay attention to what in their environment?

Answer 3

Most striking stimuli.

Question 4

Regarding attention, after age 6 or 7 children are what?

Answer 4

Less directed to salient stimuli, can pay more attention to features of performing a task or solving a problem.

Question 5

In adolescence, an increase in executive attention supports what?

Answer 5

Rapid increase in effortful control required for complex academic tasks.

Question 6

Key symptoms of ADHD fall under two well-documented categories. What are they? How does using these two dimensions to define ADHD oversimplify the disorder?

Answer 6

Inattention; hyperactivity-impulsivity.

Each dimension includes many distinct processes, attention and impulse control are closely connected developmentally.

Question 7

Inattention is the difficulty to focus on one task or to follow through on requests or instructions. Deficits may be seen in what four areas of attention?

Answer 7

Attentional capacity.

Selective attention.

Distractibility.

Sustained attention/vigilance (a core feature).

Question 8

What is the primary impairment in hyperactivity?

Answer 8

Inability to voluntarily inhibit dominant or ongoing behavior.

Question 9

Impulsivity is the inability to control immediate reactions or think before acting. What three domains does it affect?

Answer 9

Cognitive impulsivity; behavioural impulsivity; emotional impulsivity.

Question 10

The primary attention deficit in ADHD is what?

Answer 10

Inability to engage and sustain attention and to follow through on directions or rules while resisting salient distractions.

Question 11

To diagnose ADHD using DSM, what age and time criteria is required?

Answer 11

Symptoms must appear before age 12 and continue for more than 6 months.

Question 12

Since most children with ADHD have at least normal intelligence, the difficulty in cognitive deficits may be due to what?

Answer 12

Applying intelligence to everyday life situations.

Question 13

Academic skills in children with ADHD are impaired before the _____.

Answer 13

1st grade.

Question 14

Learning disorders are common for children with ADHD. What tend to be the three problem areas?

Answer 14

Reading, spelling, math.

Question 15

List three health-related concerns for children with ADHD.

Answer 15

Higher rates of asthma.

Higher rates of bedwetting.

Sleep disturbances, possibly related to use of stimulant medications and/or co-occurring conduct or anxiety disorders.

Question 16

Over 50% of children with ADHD are described as being accident-prone. What are four risks?

Answer 16

Traffic accidents.

Early initiation of cigarette smoking, substance use disorders, risky sexual behaviours.

Reduced life expectancy.

Higher medical costs.

Question 17

Links between ADHD and high levels of family problems may be due to what?

Answer 17

Co-occurring conduct problems.

Question 18

Describe the peer problems of children with ADHD. Why may this be?

Answer 18

Can be bothersome, stubborn, socially awkward, and socially insensitive. Often disliked and uniformly rejected by peers, have few friends, receive low social support from peers.

Can’t apply their social understanding in social situations.

Question 19

Prevalence rates for ADHD vary widely with sampling methods, but what is the estimation for children and adolescents worldwide? In North America? How frequently is it seen in clinics?

Answer 19

5% worldwide; 6-7% in North America.

One-half of all children referred to clinics display ADHD symptoms.

Question 20

Explain the prevalence of ADHD in boys versus girls. Does this change?

Answer 20

ADHD occurs more frequently in boys than girls. Ratio declines by adulthood (1.6:1).

Question 21

What is the ratio of ADHD in clinical samples, when comparing boys versus girls? Why may this be?

Answer 21

6:1 with boys being referred more often than girls.

Boys tend to be more defiant and aggressive. When girls display defiance and aggression, they are referred at a younger age than boys.

Question 22

Girls with ADHD may be more likely to display _____ symptoms

Answer 22

Inattentive/disorganized.

Question 23

What were the cross-cultural findings for ADHD prevalence? Which nations had the highest and lowest rates? What happened when a uniform diagnostic method was used?

Answer 23

Highest rates in South America and Africa (8-12%). Lowest rates in Japan and China (2-5%). European and North American rates in middle (4-6%).

Rates are similar worldwide.

Question 24

ADHD runs in families. Provide evidence for this, as well as rates in adoption studies and twin studies.

Answer 24

1/3 of biological relatives of children with ADHD have the disorder.

Adoption studies: ADHD rates 3x higher in biological vs. adoptive parents of children with ADHD.

Twin studies: about 75% heritability estimates for HI and IA behaviors.

Question 25

Specific gene studies for ADHD showed what?

Answer 25

Genes involved in dopamine regulation play a role.

Question 26

Factors that compromise development of the nervous system before and after birth may do what?

Answer 26

May be related to, elevate risk for, or predict later ADHD symptoms, but none shown to be specific to ADHD.

Question 27

Mother’s use of cigarettes, alcohol, or other drugs during pregnancy can damage her unborn child and are associated with ADHD. What is important to note about this?

Answer 27

Contributing factors, rather than a causal association. Difficult to disentangle influence of substance abuse and other environmental factors.

Question 28

Substantial support for neurobiological causal factors in ADHD comes from research showing differences on what three things?

Answer 28

Psychophysiological measures: diminished arousal or arousability.

Measures of brain activity during vigilance tests: under-responsiveness to stimuli/deficits in response inhibition.

Blood flow to prefrontal regions and pathways connecting them to limbic system: decreased blood flow to these regions.

Question 29

Recent research suggests that exposure to television during infancy might contribute to problems in the development of what?

Answer 29

Attention, including increased distractibility, reduced attention span, and ADHD.

Question 30

The role of diet, allergy, and lead as primary causes of ADHD is _____.

Answer 30

Minimal to nonexistent.

Question 31

Family influences may lead to a greater severity of symptoms. What is this called?

Answer 31

Goodness of fit.

Question 32

Family problems may result from what? Family conflicts?

Answer 32

Family problems may result from interacting with a child who is impulsive and difficult to manage.

Family conflict likely related to associated oppositional and conduct disorder symptoms.