The role of interference control in working memory: A study with children at risk of ADHD.

The study aimed to test whether the impairment in a working memory task observed in children at
risk of ADHD was due to a lack of control of interfering information being processed whilst carrying
out the memory task. Two groups of children at risk of ADHD with or without a learning disability
(reading impairment) were compared to a control group in a working memory task. Activation of irrelevant
items was tested with a lexical decision task presented immediately after the final recall in about
half of the trials. Results showed a poor working memory performance in children at risk of ADHD
and reading disability associated with a larger activation of irrelevant information than that of control
children. Results indicated that the to-be-excluded and interfering items are still highly accessible to
working memory in children that fail the working memory task. The examination of working memory
and interference control of children at risk of ADHD with a learning disability revealed a counterintuitive
picture of children with poor working memory showing better recall/activation of processed
information. This picture is consistent with a view of working memory related to an efficient inhibitory
control that influences cognitive functioning.