Inhibitory control can be defined as the ability to suppress unwanted or inappropriate actions and thought processes which are not suited to present events (Rothbart & Posner, 1985). Often researchers study inhibitory control using task switching experiments requiring cognitive control in order to provide correct responses, outcomes usually include total error rates and reaction times. Inhibitory control deficits have been found in some clinical populations for example schizophrenia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), these are displayed when a person struggles to restrain inappropriate behaviour or thoughts. Schizophrenia is one of these clinical populations believed to experience this deficit, and is classed as a serious
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ADHD has been found to comprise of a behavioural inhibition deficit (Barkley, 1997) which is a part of inhibitory control. An example of this characteristic in ADHD tends to be individuals acting without thinking, suggesting that this clinical population could therefore be missing out on the benefits of inhibitory control (Schacher,R., et al., 2000). Some of this research has focused on executive process deficits which control assisting cognitive processes, mainly inhibition. One experiment carried out with children displaying ADHD symptoms involved a series of tasks including task switching. It focused on measures of distractibility and activity to determine the differences between a control group and the ADHD group. The research results showed a behavioural control inability in children with ADHD compared to a control group (Barkley & Ullman, 1975). The research provides an understanding of how children with ADHD can struggle with cognitive control in task switching. By using a control group, which was matched for IQ and age, more comparisons into performances in tasks can be made, the matching makes the comparisons fairer. By only providing evidence for children, there are extraneous factors such as displaying a delay in the development of inhibitory control instead of providing evidence to support inhibitory control deficits in all age groups. Another factor when studying children may be a lack of understanding of the instructions they are given. This means that these results can inspire future research into inhibitory control deficits in adults as well as children, however it does provide a representative sample for children with ADHD. This research can also provide an explanation for some of the symptoms associated with ADHD. Other research has also been carried out which supports the results of this study, also based on children. The research
ADHD has been found to comprise of a behavioural inhibition deficit (Barkley, 1997) which is a part of inhibitory control. An example of this characteristic in ADHD tends to be individuals acting without thinking, suggesting that this clinical population could therefore be missing out on the benefits of inhibitory control (Schacher,R., et al., 2000). Some of this research has focused on executive process deficits which control assisting cognitive processes, mainly inhibition. One experiment carried out with children displaying ADHD symptoms involved a series of tasks including task switching. It focused on measures of distractibility and activity to determine the differences between a control group and the ADHD group. The research results showed a behavioural control inability in children with ADHD compared to a control group (Barkley & Ullman, 1975). The research provides an understanding of how children with ADHD can struggle with cognitive control in task switching. By using a control group, which was matched for IQ and age, more comparisons into performances in tasks can be made, the matching makes the comparisons fairer. By only providing evidence for children, there are extraneous factors such as displaying a delay in the development of inhibitory control instead of providing evidence to support inhibitory control deficits in all age groups. Another factor when studying children may be a lack of understanding of the instructions they are given. This means that these results can inspire future research into inhibitory control deficits in adults as well as children, however it does provide a representative sample for children with ADHD. This research can also provide an explanation for some of the symptoms associated with ADHD. Other research has also been carried out which supports the results of this study, also based on children. The research