Adults with ADHD often fail to reach the same occupational status as healthy controls (e.g., Barkley, Murphy, & Fischer, 2008). Functional impairments seem to be associated with clinical symptoms (e.g., Barkley et al., 2008), self-reported executive function (EF) deficits (Barkley & Fischer, 2011), and cognitive task performance (e.g., Miller, Nevado-Montenegro, & Hinshaw, 2012). Actual models of ADHD consider the influence of situational factors that influence motivation and activation on performance (e.g., Sergeant, 2005; Sonuga-Barke, 2005). Thus, it is essential to investigate such factors that may be facilitating for adults with ADHD to tailor and complement treatment options. Theoretical models and empirical investigations dealing with the influence of situational factors on cognitive performance in children with ADHD have mainly focused on the influence of physical activation, stimulation, and reward. However, less is known about the impact of these factors on adult ADHD.
Abstract. The assessment of executive functions (EF) often yields conflicting results between standardized tests and self-ratings (e. g., in depression or adult ADHD). For the present investigation, standardized EF-tasks were enriched in order to better represent executive demands of daily life. In the future this may improve the assessment and prediction of reported performance deficits in daily life. An EF-test battery was designed with material close to daily life; tasks were matched to basic executive functions. Healthy students took part in two preliminary studies to evaluate the reliability, validity, and comparability of five tasks. In the end, four tasks seem suitable, whereas one task underlies several limitations. The tasks can reliably be used and should be re-evaluated in further studies with adult ADHD participants and healthy controls.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.