Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2005 Spring;38(1):23-37.
doi: 10.1901/jaba.2005.146-02.

Behavioral assessment of impulsivity: a comparison of children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Nancy A Neef  1 , Julie Marckel, Summer J Ferreri, David F Bicard, Sayaka Endo, Michael G Aman, Kelly M Miller, Sunhwa Jung, Lindsay Nist, Nancy Armstrong
Affiliations

Behavioral assessment of impulsivity: a comparison of children with and without attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Nancy A Neef et al. J Appl Behav Anal. 2005 Spring.

Abstract

We conducted a brief computer-based assessment involving choices of concurrently presented arithmetic problems associated with competing reinforcer dimensions to assess impulsivity (choices controlled primarily by reinforcer immediacy) as well as the relative influence of other dimensions (reinforcer rate, quality, and response effort), with 58 children. Results were compared for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who were and were not receiving medication, and with typically developing children without ADHD. Within-subject and between-groups analyses of the ordinal influence of each of the reinforcer dimensions were conducted using both time- and response-allocation measures. In general, the choices of children with ADHD were most influenced by reinforcer immediacy and quality and least by rate and effort, suggesting impulsivity. The choices of children in the non-ADHD group were most influenced by reinforcer quality, and the influence of immediacy relative to the other dimensions was not statistically significant. Results are discussed with respect to the implications for assessment and treatment of ADHD.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Dimensions of the response alternatives for each assessment condition.
Shaded boxes represent the competing dimensions in each condition.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Illustrative results showing the percentage of time allocation to problem alternatives across assessment conditions.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 4th ed., text rev. Washington, DC: Author; 2000.
    1. Barkley R.A. ADHD and the nature of self-control. New York: Guilford; 1997.
    1. Barkley R.A, Fischer M, Edelbrock C.S, Smallish L. The adolescent outcome of hyperactive children diagnosed by research criteria: I. An 8-year prospective follow-up study. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 1990;29:546–557. - PubMed
    1. Campbell S.B, Pierce E.W, March C.L, Ewing L.J, Szumoswski E.K. Hard-to-manage preschoolers: Symptomatic behavior across contexts and time. Child Development. 1994;65:836–851. - PubMed
    1. Cantwell D.P, Baker L. Association between attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder and learning disorders. In: Shaywitz S.E, Shaywitz B.A, editors. Attention deficit disorder comes of age: Toward the twenty-first century. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed; 1992. pp. 145–164.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources