| Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorders with a nation-wide prevalence in adults of 4.4% (Kessler et al., 2006). The disorder is associated with problems of executive control, working memory, inhibitory control, and attention regulation (Castellanos et al., 2006), as well as maladaptive decision making processes (DeVito et al., 2009). The present study sought to explore how attention to information displayed on a screen related to decision making behaviors in adults with ADHD compared to controls. Twenty-nine participants (6 ADHD-Inattentive type, 13 ADHD-Combined type, and 10 controls) completed a computer based diminishing utility tone-discrimination task involving decision making between trials while their point of gaze was recorded by an eye tracker. The results indicated that adults with ADHD exhibited more variability in their decision durations. Adults without ADHD tended to make decisions more quickly than those with the disorder; this trend was, however, not quite significant (p=0.07). Also, adults with ADHD did not exhibit looking patterns that differed from adults without the disorder. The present study provides initial data on what facets of decision making could direct the focus of future work. For example, future studies may examine how decision making behaviors involving choices with more complex information differ between ADHD and non-ADHD groups. |
