Performance on the Continuous Performance Task and the impact of reward

It is widely believed that children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) display a core deficit in their ability to sustain attention. Empirical support is primarily based on tasks which purport to measure this construct (e.g., the Continuous Performance Task; CPT). However, there exists a lack of converging evidence in this research literature. The aim of the present study was to: 1) determine if children with ADHD evidenced a sustained attention deficit as defined by both poorer performance as well as a differential vigilance decrement on a pre-selected CPT; and 2) examine the nature of these sustained attention deficits in relation to a motivation/compliance hypothesis. The results indicated that the ADHD children could be con sidered to display a sustained attention deficit based on the pre-selected CPT (i.e., they evi denced poorer performance and a differential vigilance decrement over time). However, this deficit in sustained attention could not be accounted for by motivational issues.