Cognitive inhibitory control and arithmetic word problem solving in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A pilot study

Abstract

A sample of 30 subjects, 10 with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and 20 non-ADHD children, statistically controlled by age, gender, academic grades and normal full scale intelligence quotient, was selected. To measure cognitive inhibitory control, a math problem solving ability test containing four problems for each level with verbal and numerical irrelevant content was administered. ADHD children exhibited significantly inferior performance in choosing correct answers (p = 0.011) with a large effect size (d = 1.00) and a significantly superior number of irrelevant answers (p = 0.004) with a very large effect size. In conclusion ADHD children showed a cognitive inhibitory control disorder, measured by math problem solving ability.