The hyperkinetic child: Effect of incentives on the speed of rapid tapping.

Abstract

Thirty-six hyperkinetic and 36 control boys, ages 8-11, were studied on a rapid-tapping task. They were divided into three incentive groups: one allowed to respond freely (US), one encouraged to tap rapidly (S), and one given pennies for increasing their tapping rate (R). As expected, the R and S groups tapped more rapidly than the US groups. When analyzed separately, no significant incentive group differences were found for the hyperkinetics. The moderately fast tapping of the hyperkinetics, regardless of group, resulted in the US hyperkinetics tapping more rapidly than the US controls, but when incentive was introduced (S and R groups), the controls were able to tap faster than the hyperkinetics. This inability of the hyperkinetics to adaptively adjust to the changing incentive conditions was suggested to be a function of defects in brain structures regulating arousal and concentration.

Synchronization, Anticipation, and Consistency in Motor Timing of Children with Dimensionally Defined Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Behaviour

“…For example, in free tapping tasks, hyperactive children tap faster than controls (Stevens, et al, 1967). When speed is required, hyperactive children are less able to adjust their speed to the externally demanded pace, as observed on both motor (Stevens, et al, 1967(Stevens, et al, , 1970Denckla, et al, 1985;Carte, et al, 1996) and cognitive tasks (Sergeant & Scholten, 1985;Robins, 1992;Carte, et a/., 1996). In uncertain situations, hyperactive children respond too rapidly (Sergeant & van der Meere, 1988), and they respond prematurely and therefore more inaccurately on delay (Gordon, 1979; and on time-estimation tasks (Barrat, 1981;Walker, 1982).…”

“…Hyperactive children are impaired in sensorimotor (Werry, Minde, Guzman, Weiss, Dogan, & Hoy, 1972), timed sensorimotor (Stevens, Boydstun, Dykman, Peters, & Sinton, 1967;Stevens, Stover, & Backus, 1970;Roth, Gebelt, & Gebelt, 1983), and speeded motor tasks (Denckla & Rudel, 1978;Denckla, Rudel, Chapman, & Krieger, 1985;Carte, Nigg, & Hmshaw, 1996). Two pecuharities characterize the motor output of hyperactive children, poor temporal control and a relatively fast response style.…”

Temporal information processing in ADHD: Findings to date and new methods

“…Stevens et al (1970) found that children with ADHD tapped slower than controls in a speeded condition and in a speeded condition with a reward on a self-paced tapping task. McInerney and Kerns (2003) examined duration reproduction in children using two versions of a visual task, one simply involving reproduction and an enhanced version in which participants could win a prize for improved performance.…”

Evidence for a pure time perception deficit in children with ADHD

“…Neuropsychological research over the last 30 years has addressed the question of the specific deficits associated with ADHD, finding primarily frontal‐lobe mediated executive dysfunctions, including deficits in motor response inhibition, executive attentional control and working memory (Barkley, 1997). Several studies in the eighties and a few more recent studies have investigated skills associated with the temporal dimension of behaviour in ADHD (Stevens, Stover, & Backus, 1970; Cappella, Gentile, & Juliano, 1977; Senior, Towne, & Huessy, 1979; Barratt, 1981; Brown, 1982; Walker, 1982; Barkley, Koplowitz, Anderson, & McMurray, 1997; Sonuga‐Barke, Saxton, & Hall, 1998; Rubia, Taylor, Taylor, & Sergeant, 1999b; Rubia et al., 2001). Temporal processing skills include time perception and motor timing.…”

“…While the studies described above have focused upon temporal skills involving the duration estimation of several seconds, other studies have focused on timing at the motor output level, so‐called motor timing functions. Stevens et al. (1970) found faster tapping by hyperkinetic children compared with controls on a free tapping task.…”