Effects of methylphenidate on the persistence of ADHD boys following failure experiences Article

Milich, R, Carlson, CL, Pelham, WE et al. (1991). Effects of methylphenidate on the persistence of ADHD boys following failure experiences . JOURNAL OF ABNORMAL CHILD PSYCHOLOGY, 19(5), 519-536. 10.1007/BF00925818

cited authors

  • Milich, R; Carlson, CL; Pelham, WE; Licht, BG

authors

abstract

  • We examined the effects of methylphenidate on the task persistence of 21 boys with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), after they had been exposed to both solvable and insolvable problems. The boys attempted to solve 10 different find-a-word puzzles on each of 4 days, involving the crossing of medication (placebo vs. 0.3 mg/kg) and prior task difficulty (solvable vs. insolvable). The results revealed that medication prevented the decrement in performance following the insolvable problems that was evident with the placebo days. In addition, on medication compared with placebo, the boys were more likely to make external attributions for failure and internal attributions for success. The results are discussed in terms of the impact of medication on ADHD boys' performance as medicated by cognitivemotivational state mechanisms. © 1991 Plenum Publishing Corporation.

publication date

  • October 1, 1991

published in

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

start page

  • 519

end page

  • 536

volume

  • 19

issue

  • 5