EFFECTS OF REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULE AND TASK-DIFFICULTY ON THE PERFORMANCE OF ATTENTION-DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDERED AND CONTROL BOYS

Examined the effects of reinforcement schedule and task difficulty on the performance of attention deficit hyperactivity disordered (ADHD) a nd normal control boys on a learning task. Forty-five ADHD boys and 45 control boys were randomly assigned to one of three reinforcement con ditions: none, partial (PR; i.e., 50%), or continuous (CR). Each child performed two paired-associate memory tasks, varying in difficulty: a related- and an unrelated-word pair task. Each child also completed q uestionnaires about each task and about his memory strategies. Results indicated that the performance of both the boys with ADHD and control boys was adversely affected by PR in the related-word task. In the un related-word task the performance of both groups was optimized under t he CR condition. These results do not lend support to findings of prev ious research suggesting that children with ADHD are more adversely af fected than control children by the frustrative effects of partial rei nforcement. However group differences were found with respect to the q uestionnaires. Findings were consistent with previous studies that sug gested that children with ADHD tend to show a ''helpless'' pattern of behavior, as opposed to a ''mastery-oriented'' pattern, and may have a n unrealistically positive view of their own competence. Other finding s indicated that children with ADHD tended to use memory strategies ch aracteristic of younger children.