A diffusion model analysis of task set inertia and task set reconfiguration in ADHD

OBJECTIVE: Switching is one of three primary executive functions alongside inhibitory control and updating but remains relatively understudied in childhood attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) compared to investigations into working memory and inhibitory control deficits. Where extant literature in adults suggests that switch costs are due to a combination of task set inertia and task set reconfiguration costs, it is not clear which of these is most relevant to explaining ADHD-related atypicalities in performance. METHODS: = 28) aged 8-12 (average age = 9.45) completed a 192-trial computerized cued switching paradigm. Diffusion model decomposition of the data was performed to identify cognitive subprocesses responsible for the switch. RESULTS: ) on switch versus repeat trials. Children with ADHD were less accurate than non-ADHD controls, but the ADHD × Switch interactions were not significant for any variable, indicating that the deficit was general and not switch-specific. Lower accuracy was in turn attributed to slower general drift rate among children with ADHD. CONCLUSIONS: This study contributes to a growing literature finding that the performance deficits in children with ADHD across executive and non-executive function tasks are related to lower-level perceptual decision-making weaknesses that have downstream effects on higher-order processing.