Decision making in children with ADHD only, ADHD-anxious/depressed, and control children using a child version of the Iowa gambling task

Nancy Garon, Chris Moore, Daniel Waschbusch

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

96 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objective: The goal of this study is to investigate decision making in children with ADHD using a child version of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). The effect of internalizing symptoms is also of interest. Method: Twenty-one children with ADHD (high anxiety/depression and no anxiety/depression) are compared to an age- and sex-matched control group on the gambling task. Children in the ADHD-alone group demonstrate impaired performance on the IGT. In contrast, children in the control group and the ADHD-anxiety/depression group learn to choose more from the advantageous decks over time. Results: These findings of impaired decision making in children with ADHD parallel findings of real-life decision-making problems in this population. Conclusion: Furthermore, the findings suggest that having a high number of internalizing symptoms leads to better performance for children with ADHD on this variant of the IGT.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)607-619
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Attention Disorders
Volume9
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1 2006

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Developmental and Educational Psychology
  • Clinical Psychology

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