TY  - JOUR
A1  - Kray, Jutta
A1  - Karbach, Julia
A1  - Haenig, Susann
A1  - Freitag, Christine M.
T1  - Can task-switching training enhance executive control functioning in children with attention deficit/-hyperactivity disorder?
T2  - Frontiers in human neuroscience
N2  - The key cognitive impairments of children with attention deficit/-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) include executive control functions such as inhibitory control, task-switching, and working memory (WM). In this training study we examined whether task-switching training leads to improvements in these functions. Twenty children with combined type ADHD and stable methylphenidate medication performed a single-task and a task-switching training in a crossover training design. The children were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group started with the single-task training and then performed the task-switching training and the other group vice versa. The effectiveness of the task-switching training was measured as performance improvements (relative to the single-task training) on a structurally similar but new switching task and on other executive control tasks measuring inhibitory control and verbal WM as well as on fluid intelligence (reasoning). The children in both groups showed improvements in task-switching, that is, a reduction of switching costs, but not in performing the single-tasks across four training sessions. Moreover, the task-switching training lead to selective enhancements in task-switching performance, that is, the reduction of task-switching costs was found to be larger after task-switching than after single-task training. Similar selective improvements were observed for inhibitory control and verbal WM, but not for reasoning. Results of this study suggest that task-switching training is an effective cognitive intervention that helps to enhance executive control functioning in children with ADHD.
KW  - ADHD
KW  - task-switching training
KW  - executive control
KW  - training transfer
Y1  - 2012
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/27375
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-273758
SN  - 1662-5161
N1  - Copyright: © 2012 Kray, Karbach, Haenig and Freitag. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial License, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited.
VL  - 5
IS  - Article 180
PB  - Frontiers Research Foundation
CY  - Lausanne
ER  -