VISUOSPATIAL ATTENTIONAL SHIFTS AND CHOICE RESPONSES OF ADULTS AND ADHD AND NON-ADHD CHILDREN

18 adults, 17 ADHD children, and 18 non-ADHD children performed a choi ce-response task on which the spatial location of a target was sometim es compatible and sometimes incompatible with priming cues that varied between 50 and 1000 msec. Children's response latencies differed form adults' response latencies as a function of the delay between priming cue and target onset. A cost-benefit analysis indicated that valid st imulus cues facilitated performance and invalid stimulus cues impeded performance similarly for the three groups. Choice-response errors fol lowing invalid cues did not differ between ADHD and non-ADHD children; however, adults made more choice errors than children at 150-msec. an d 300-msec. delay intervals. Developmental factors that may underlie d ifferences between children's and adults' response speed and response accuracy are discussed.