Working memory, response inhibition, and within-subject variability in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder or reading disorder

Abstract

This study compared children with ADHD (n = 19), reading disorder (RD; n = 17), ADHD+RD (n = 21), and control children (n = 19) on linguistic and executive function measures. We found no evidence of response inhibition problems in ADHD or RD when a baseline measure of functioning was taken into account. General working memory problems were only found in children with RD or ADHD+RD. Both children with ADHD and RD showed a highly inaccurate (more commission errors) and variable (higher within-subject standard deviation of reaction time) response style. The comorbid group made most errors, suggesting that different factors underlie the high error rate in both disorders.

Keywords:

• Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder
• Reading disorder
• Comorbidity
• Executive function
• Within-subject variability

This research was supported by grants from the Ghent University Research Fund. The authors gratefully acknowledge Graham Neuhaus for analyzing the Rapid Automatized Naming data, and all children and their parents and teachers for their cooperation.