Psychology Commons^™

The Non-Standardization Of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder: A Call To Action, Gabriel L.S Gomez

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most diagnosed disorders in adults and children, yet there is no standardized method to assess for ADHD. The similarity of symptoms shared across other disorders (comorbidity) makes the assessment of ADHD a very delicate process. This is not aided by the fact that the assessment of ADHD is not standardized. This allows individuals able to assess for ADHD to give a test or a combination of tests that they find fitting. This in turn brings into question the quality of testing and disagreement in diagnosing across fields. Lastly, ADHD-focused measures typically …

Adhd Symptoms And Inattentional Blindness In An Undergraduate Sample, Katherine Rose Matchett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and the phenomenon of inattentional blindness has received little empirical attention, with only a single published study on the topic. The purpose of the present study was to investigate individual differences in ADHD symptom severity in a non-clinical, undergraduate sample as they relate to susceptibility to inattentional blindness. Because research conducted in an individual differences framework requires the use of reliable measurement instruments, the present study also set out to develop and pilot a task that could induce inattentional blindness repeatedly and reliably in the same participants. The results showed that a) the measure …

The Association Among Executive Functioning, Self-Efficacy And Adhd With Attitudes Towards Online Learning, Alice Sperry

Honors Theses

Prior research has shown that worse executive function and lower self-efficacy are associated with learning differences such as ADHD and associated with psychiatric diagnoses. The purpose of this study was to investigate the interaction among executive function, self-efficacy, attitudes towards online learning and learning differences. Fifty-one participants completed a survey which assessed executive function, self-efficacy, attitudes towards online learning and also asked demographic questions. The results indicated that students with learning differences and students with a psychiatric diagnosis had significantly worse executive function than students without a diagnosis. Students with a learning difference were also found to have significantly lower …

Evaluating Brain Performance Enhancing Drugs, Kristina Toropova

Open Educational Resources

Students read about drugs which enhance student academic performance.They will connect the found information to prior course material, addressing neuroanatomy and neurophysiology as well as connect to the attention course chapter. Students will also delve into the ethical components of the use of brain enchasing drugs and compare them to sports performance-enhancing drugs.

The Effects Of White Noise Exposure On Cognition: An Examination Of The Impacts Of White Noise Presentation On Recall And Cognitive Load, Cordelia Ann Witty

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

White noise has historically been utilized as a tool for offsetting or masking sounds that may be perceived as disruptive, most commonly during the sleeping process. More recently, literature has begun to explore the possibility of using white noise as a tool to suppress these potentially distracting sounds within the area of cognitive processing. Present literature suggests that white noise may be a useful tool for masking noises like these in order to improve cognitive performance, especially for those individuals who may possess inattentive symptoms. However, this research has largely been conducted using tasks that involve working memory or visual …

Development Of Prefrontal Structure And Connectivity In Typical Children And Children With Adhd: Association With Language And Executive Function, Dea Garic

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The structure and connectivity of the prefrontal cortex has been extensively studied for its contribution to language and executive function (EF) development, but many questions still remain whether its microstructural tissue properties can reliably predict behavioral outcomes in very young typically and atypically developing populations. In particular, the bilateral frontal aslant tract (FAT) has garnered increasing interest with respect to its potential association with both language and EF, but has yet to be examined in childhood attention disorders, such Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). At the same time, with advances in diffusion weighted imaging (DWI), new diffusion models offer more …

Investigating The Eeg Error-Related Negativity In College Students With Adhd, Anxiety, And Depression, Mariacristina Canini

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Error-related negativity (ERN) is an event-related potential elicited by the commission of errors. It appears as a negative deflection peaking between 50ms and 100ms after an erroneous response. Previous literature demonstrated that individuals who suffer from either anxiety or depression display a higher ERN amplitude compared to a control group. It has also been shown that people with ADHD display a lower ERN amplitude. Based on these findings, we investigated the relationships between these three disorders and their effects on the amplitude of the ERN. We recruited thirty-one students at East Tennessee State University and gathered data on their level …

Exploring Obesity, Adhd Severity, And Disordered Eating Behavior Among College Students, Carolina Rozario

Dissertations and Theses

Obesity is a global epidemic because of the potential health risks. There is evidence that many obese individuals manifest persistent ADHD symptoms, and that both disorders increase risk for binge eating. Nevertheless, how obesity and ADHD may increase risk for binge eating work is unclear. Neuropsychological deficits are common to all disorders and may help to explain the relations observed. The aim of this study was to explore whether neuropsychological dysfunction, especially inhibitory control weaknesses, moderate the association between greater BMI and more severe ADHD and disordered eating behaviors. Thirty-nine undergraduate college students (27 females; Mean age = 20.77, SD …

Expectancies As A Predictor Of Prescription Stimulant Use Among Medical Students, Katherine Gorman

Antioch University Full-Text Dissertations & Theses

Research suggests that individuals’ expectations about a drug’s effects are predictive of various types of substance abuse, including nonmedical prescription stimulant use (Torrealday et al., 2008). Nonmedical prescription stimulant use, or NMPSU, refers to any use of prescription stimulants without a medical prescription, use of prescription stimulants for nonmedical purposes, or use that exceeds what is prescribed (Bavarian, Flay, Ketcham, &Smit, 2013). NMPSU is associated with a number of negative outcomes, including drug and alcohol abuse, risk-taking behavior, mental illness, physical health problems, and lower educational attainment (McCabe, Teter, Boyd, & Wechsler, 2005). While most previous research has focused on …

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder With Comorbid Anxiety/Depression In Adults: Impacts On Neuropsychological Functioning, Cristina Valdivieso Bain

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

ADHD comorbidity with other disorders is high in the adult population (over 44% of individuals carry a second diagnosis, 25% anxiety, 18.6% in depression). Separately, these disorders can impact scores on neuropsychological assessments. Little research has investigated how comorbidity among ADHD and other disorders impacts test scores collectively. Given high rates of comorbidity between ADHD and anxiety/depressive disorders and the potential impact on neuropsychological functioning, the current study examined how these comorbid disorders collectively impact cognition. Specifically, the present study investigated differences in full scale intelligence, general ability, and cognitive proficiency on the WAIS-IV between those diagnosed with ADHD only …

Examining The Effects Of Frustration On Working Memory Capacity In An Emerging Adult Sample, Jonathan Parks Fillauer

Masters Theses

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is associated with numerous pejorative outcomes in adults such as low frustration tolerance and deficits in central executive functioning. The present study aims to examine (1) the effect of induced frustration on working memory capacity (WMC) and (2) the unique contribution of ADHD symptoms and other commonly comorbid disorders (i.e., anxiety/depression and alcohol use) to frustration. Participants (N=66) were randomly assigned to either the control group (n=32) or the experimental group (n=34). The Frustration Induction Procedure (FIP) was administered to participants in the experimental group and a neutral, non-frustrating task was administered to a control group. A …

The Effects Of Meditation On Brain Organization And The Implications For Treating Adhd, Talia Gibson

Honors Projects

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has recently become increasingly diagnosed for children and adolescents. As of now, the most common treatment method is medication, with the purpose of changing brain organization. Recently, however, there has been increasing interest in the use of mindfulness meditation to treat the symptoms associated with ADHD. In this paper, eleven different studies, which have introduced mindfulness meditation as a treatment method for ADHD, are analyzed. The studies measure the degree to which mindfulness meditation improves common symptoms associated with ADHD. These symptoms include attentional problems, reduced mindful awareness, externalizing and internalizing problems, reduced self-control, impaired social behavior, …

The Relationship Between Physical Exercise And Cognition In Children With Typical Development And Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Beron Wei Zhong Tan

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research project sought to investigate the relationship between physical exercise and cognition in children with and without a neurodevelopmental condition. To achieve this aim, three approaches were undertaken to explore the exercise and cognition relationship. The first approach sought to understand the efficacy of exercise interventions on cognition in individuals with a neurodevelopmental disorder. The second approach was to understand the effectiveness of an exercise activity when compared to a cognitively-engaging tablet game activity on measures of implicit learning and attention in children with and without a neurodevelopmental condition. The third approach was to investigate if psychophysiological measures could …

Attention Deficits And Perception Of Emotion In Groups, Agnes Renee Strojewska

Theses and Dissertations

The present study investigated the relationship between attention deficits and the recognition of emotions of either individuals or groups (ensembles). Previous research has suggested that individuals with ADHD may have deficits in social cognition, specifically in recognizing the internal (emotional) states of others, though it remains unclear whether these deficits are a discrete component of ADHD or merely the byproduct of the inattention characteristic of the disorder. Perception of ensemble characteristics, or ensemble coding, has recently been the target of increased interest in perception research, and appears to represent a powerful mechanism for processing sensory information, particularly in situations when …

Medicalization Of Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia, Adhd, Childhood Bipolar Disorder And Tantrums: Scientific Breakthrough, Or Broad-Based Delusion?, W. Wyatt

W. Joseph Wyatt

Clearly, a number of psychological and behavioral disorders arise within our biology. These include autism, Down’s syndrome, those due to toxin exposure, metabolic and endocrine difficulties, and several others. In contrast, there is minimal research evidence to support biological origins of the vast number of common disorders such as depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia or child problems such as conduct disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), childhood bipolar disorder, oppositional behaviors or tantrums. These disorders have been medicalized when, in the absence of supportive research evidence, they are said to be caused by genetic defects, chemical imbalances or other biological phenomena. …

Central Executive Functioning And Electrodermal Levels In Adults With And Without Clinically Significant Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Symptoms, Megan Carl

Masters Theses

Adults diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) demonstrate impaired performance on central executive (CE) functioning tasks (Alderson, Hudec, Patros, & Kasper, 2013a; Boonstra, Oosterlaan, Sergeant, & Buitelaar, 2005; Nigg et al., 2005) and underarousal of the sympathetic nervous system as measured by the electrodermal levels (EDLs) during resting state paradigms (Hermens et al., 2004). CE functioning and arousal are linked in three theoretical models of ADHD. No study to date has examined the degree to which EDLs (arousal) are related to ADHD-related cognitive impairments. This study examined (1) performance associated with central executive functioning and (2) EDLs while increasing CE processing …

Working Memory, Emotion Regulation, And Effortful Control Levels In Children With Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder., James Rush

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

University Students Diagnosed With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Hermeneutical Phenomenological Study Of Challenges And Successes, Vickie Johnston

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This hermeneutic phenomenological study inquired about the challenges and successes of eight university students diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder at a university in the southeastern United States. The data collection methods involved documentation, questionnaires, focus groups, and individual interviews. The analysis of data involved open coding and in vivo coding; conversational interview methods through member checks were employed at the end of each interview. Several themes emerged from the data regarding the factors in academic success and challenges, the environments and learning styles most conducive to learning, individual factors that contributed to academic success, and the reading and study …

An Electrophysiological Examination Of Adhd-Associated Symptoms And Selective Attention In Adults, Erica Diane Prentkowski

Dissertations

A main component of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a deficit of inattention. This deficit causes impairment for both children and adults in a variety of settings including school and work. The current study examined auditory selective attention in a community sample of adults. It was the aim of this project to examine possible differences in selective attention for adults with high levels of ADHDassociated symptoms, when compared to adults with low levels of ADHD-associated symptoms, including conditions under which these differences may be an advantage. Specifically, it was expected that adults with high ADHD-associated symptoms would benefit from the high …

The Behavioral Effects Of Increased Physical Activity On Preschoolers At Risk For Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Jasmin L. Roberts

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Physical activity (PA) has many health benefits, both physical and psychological. PA has been linked to improved cognitive functioning, superior overall health, and enhanced emotional well-being in populations ranging from school-age children to older adults. There has been less research, however, examining the benefits of PA in atypical preschool populations.

The present study examined the efficacy of a PA intervention in preschool-aged children at risk for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). ADHD symptomatology, response inhibition, and physical activity were measured at three time points over a 6-month period. Results provide support for the efficacy of PA as an alleviative tool …