EXECUTIVE FUNCTION PROCESSES: INHIBITION, WORKING MEMORY, PLANNING AND ATTENTION IN CHILDREN AND YOUTH WITH ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER A Dissertation by MONICA EILEEN WOLFE

Executive Function Processes: Inhibition, Working Memory, Planning and Attention in Children and Youth with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. (December 2004). Monica Eileen Wolfe, B.A., Texas Woman’s University Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. Cynthia A. Riccio Dr. Michael J. Ash This study examines the roles of inhibition, attention, working memory, and planning in youth with and without ADHD. As conceptualized in theories of attention, inhibition, and working memory, difficulties with these executive processes interact to manifest in the behavioral syndrome(s) of ADHD. Barkley (1997) proposed disinhibition as the primary deficit of ADHD. Rapport, Chung, Shore, Denney, & Isaacs, (2000) theorized that ADHD results from a primary deficit in working memory. Mirsky (1987) proposed a model of attention which children with ADHD have deficits in abilities to focus/execute, encode and sustain attention. Posner and Petersen (1990) proposed that three attentional networks are responsible for attentional processes and those children with ADHD have deficits in the vigilance network. To investigate the contributions of inhibition, working memory, attention, and planning in executive dysfunction in children with ADHD, measures were selected from factor analytic studies. Children with ADHD-Combined Type demonstrated poorer inhibition and working memory than children with no diagnosis after controlling for IQ effects. No differences in planning and attention were indicated after controlling for IQ effects.