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Multitasking performance of Chinese children with ADHD

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2006

RAYMOND C.K. CHAN ,
MIAOYAN GUO ,
XIAOBING ZOU ,
DAN LI ,
ZHOUYI HU  and
BINRANG YANG
RAYMOND C.K. CHAN
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
MIAOYAN GUO
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
XIAOBING ZOU
Affiliation:
Department of Pediatrics, Child Developmental-behavioral Center, The 3rd Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
DAN LI
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
ZHOUYI HU
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
BINRANG YANG
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Neuropsychology and Applied Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, China
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Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore multitasking skills in a Chinese sample of 22 children with attention deficit–hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) compared with 22 healthy controls matched by gender, age, and IQ. All of the participants completed the children's version of the Six Elements Test (C-SET) and neuropsychological tests that captured specific domains of attention, memory, and executive function. Children with ADHD performed significantly worse than the healthy controls in all domains except the number of rules broken in the C-SET. The majority of the C-SET domain scores correlated significantly with measures of executive function. The ADHD group also demonstrated deficits in various neurocognitive test performances compared with the healthy group. This preliminary study suggests that the C-SET is sensitive to multitasking behavior in Chinese children with ADHD. The main impairments of multitasking behavior in this clinical group involve the inhibition of goal-directed planning, flexible strategy generation, and self-monitoring. (JINS, 2006, 12, 575–579.)

Keywords

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorderMultitaskingExecutive functionCognitive processAssessmentChinese
Type
BRIEF COMMUNICATION
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , July 2006 , pp. 575 - 579
Copyright
© 2006 The International Neuropsychological Society

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