Metamemory knowledge and application in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a developmental perspective

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) typically demonstrate significant difficulties producing and achieving in the academic setting. Research efforts are needed to illuminate the effects deficits associated with the primary characteristics of ADHD have on other cognitive processes. Such efforts are imperative to defining effective instruction and remediation that is specific to the learning needs of the ADHD child. Investigations undertaken thus far have consistently demonstrated that ADHD children do not exhibit deficits in memory capacity or show deficiency on memory and learning tasks that require automatic or less effortful, strategic processing (e.g., Benezra & Douglas, 1988). ADHD children, in contrast, show impairment on tasks requiring more effortful, planful deliberate operations (e.g., August & Garfinkel, 1990). The nature of the ADHD children's performance on such tasks is less clear. It is not understood, for example, whether children with ADHD lack or are delayed in acquiring knowledge of effective strategies or have the appropriate knowledge, but fail to apply it.