Delay aversion in ADHD: attentional and interpretive processes

Abstract

The dissertation explores the motivational significance of delay for children with ADHD from an information processing perspective. The literature review discusses Sonuga-Barke's proposal that delay aversion represents a mediating link in a motivational pathway to ADHD. Preliminary findings suggest that hyperactive children display attentional biases towards delay cues, indicating they are motivated to detect delay. Information processing models suggest that attentional biases are often associated with other information processing biases, leading to a cognitive pattern that is more likely to maintain emotional disorder. Implications for the application of information processing models to understanding the motivational significance of delay in ADHD are discussed.

In the empirical paper attentional and interpretative biases for delay were investigated using modified versions of the forced choice dot probe task and the ambiguous situations task. Previous findings of an attentional bias towards delay in hyperactive children were not replicated with a clinical sample, some support for an interpretative bias towards delay was found. Delay situations were found to be more associated with anger than anxiety for all participants. No differences were found in participant's reports of how they would respond to delay situations. The findings of the study give mixed support for the motivational significance of delay in ADHD; limitations and directions of future research are discussed.

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