Inhibitory Control and Creativity in Youth with ADHD

Event: Undergraduate Research Symposium
Date: May 18, 2019
Location: UCI Student Center

Presenters: Bryce Carson, Lara Barakat, Shireen Khan, Francesca Trane
Mentor: Susanne Jaeggi, Masha R. Jones

Title: Inhibitory Control and Creativity in Youth with ADHD

Abstract

​This study investigates the connection between inhibitory control and divergent thinking in non-ADHD youth and youth with ADHD. Inhibitory control is an executive functioning skill thought to be critical to scholastic success, and children with ADHD have consistently been shown to exhibit lower levels of inhibitory control. Additionally, adults with ADHD have been shown to exhibit higher levels of divergent thinking than their non-ADHD peers. There is some evidence that suggests youth with ADHD are highly creative and proving this would be beneficial as this information could be used to improve the learning experience for children with ADHD. To do this, it is necessary to replicate findings that children with ADHD are highly creative, but it is also important to investigate whether inhibitory control is the mechanistic link that explains why children with ADHD are more creative. Twendy-five adolescents aged 10–18 diagnosed with ADHD completed measures of inhibitory control (D2, CPT) and divergent thinking (ATTA) to compare their performance to a control group of adolescents without ADHD (n=37). I hypothesize that children with ADHD will demonstrate lower levels of inhibitory control than their peers and that these lower levels of inhibitory control will correlate to higher levels of divergent thinking. Results suggest there is no significant difference in scores between children with ADHD and their typically developing peers on the ATTA (p = 0.35), D2 (0.34), and CPT (p = 0.44) tasks. However, these findings suggest there is a significant positive correlation between age and ATTA scores (p = 0.02).

Bryce Carson at UROP Symposium