Multiple Task Interference is Greater in Children With ADHD

There is considerable lay discussion that children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have increased difficult with multitasking, but there are few experimental data. In the current study, we examine the simultaneous processing of two stimulus-response tasks using the psychological refractory period (PRP) effect. We hypothesized that children with ADHD would show a greater PRP effect, suggesting a prolonged “bottleneck” in stimulus-response processing. A total of 19 school-aged children with ADHD showed a prolonged PRP effect compared with 25 control children, suggesting a higher cognitive cost in ADHD for multi-tasking.