Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Neurosciences and Mental Health Research Program, Toronto, Canada.
Child Neuropsychol. 2011;17(5):444-58. doi: 10.1080/09297049.2010.544648. Epub 2011 Jul 11.
This study investigated the role of inattention and working memory in predicting academic achievement in 145 adolescents aged 13 to 18 referred for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Path analysis was used to examine whether auditory-verbal and visual-spatial working memory would mediate the relationships between classroom inattention symptoms and achievement outcomes. Results provide support for the mediational model. Behavioral inattention significantly predicted both auditory-verbal and visual-spatial working memory performance. Auditory-verbal working memory was strongly associated with adolescents' achievement in reading and mathematics, while visual-spatial working memory was only associated with achievement in mathematics. The path from inattention symptoms to reading was partially mediated by the working memory variables, but the path from inattention to mathematics was not mediated by working memory. The proposed model demonstrated a good fit to the data and explained a substantial amount of variance in the adolescents' achievement outcomes. These findings imply that working memory is a risk factor for academic failure for adolescents with attentional problems.
本研究调查了注意缺陷多动障碍（ADHD）青少年 13 至 18 岁的 145 名被试中，注意力不集中和工作记忆在预测学业成绩中的作用。路径分析用于检验课堂注意力不集中症状与学业成绩之间的关系是否可以通过听觉言语和视觉空间工作记忆来进行中介。结果支持中介模型。行为注意力不集中显著预测了听觉言语和视觉空间工作记忆表现。听觉言语工作记忆与青少年在阅读和数学方面的成绩密切相关，而视觉空间工作记忆仅与数学成绩相关。注意力不集中症状与阅读成绩之间的路径部分通过工作记忆变量进行中介，但注意力不集中与数学成绩之间的路径不受工作记忆的影响。所提出的模型与数据拟合良好，解释了青少年学业成绩中大量的方差。这些发现表明，工作记忆是注意力问题青少年学业失败的一个风险因素。
