Moderators of short-term and working memory deficits in children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): A meta-analytic review

Extant literature has demonstrated equivocal results regarding whether working memory is a core deficit of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder. Failure to find uniform working memory deficits in children with ADHD, relative to typically developing children, may reflect methodological and experimental variables that suppressed between-group effects. The current study employed meta-analytic techniques to examine a broad range of moderating variables of effect size variability across working memory performance. Results revealed moderate overall phonological and visuospatial working memory effect sizes. In addition, several moderating variables explained significant effect size variability across studies, while examination of best case estimation procedures and percent overlap lend further support for working memory as a core deficit of the disorder.