Investigating the efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation of inhibitory control on cold executive functions, working memory and cognitive flexibility in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder

Cold executive functions, working memory and cognitive flexibility are among the main cognitive functions that play a role in attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Cognitive rehabilitation has been proposed as an efficacy and non-pharmacological treatment method in improving and promoting cognitive functions in a wide range of mental and behavioral disorders, but until now, the efficacy of cognitive rehabilitation of inhibitory control on the cold executive functions of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder has been less studied despite the importance and necessity of improving and strengthening these structures.

The purpose of this study was to investigating the efficacy of inhibitory control cognitive rehabilitation on cold executive functions such as working memory, cognitive flexibility in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

The research design was semi-experimental with a pre-test, post-test and follow-up plan with a control group. The statistical population of the study included male and female students of 7-12 years of elementary school in Tehran in the academic year 2020-2021 who were suffering from attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The statistical sample included 30 students who were selected by purposeful sampling, they were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The SNAP Questionnaire (SNAP-IV, Swanson, Nolan and Pelham, 1980), the Computerized Previous Multiple Stimulus Test (N-BACK, Kirchner, 1958) and the Wisconsin Computerized Test (WSCT, Grant & Berg, 1948) were used to collect information. For data analysis, mixed variance analysis method with repeated measurements and SPSS24 software were used to analyze the data.

The results showed that there is a difference in the performance of the experimental group and the control group in the components of active memory and cognitive flexibility (P<0.05).

According to the obtained findings, it seems that structured tasks aimed at strengthening interference inhibition and response to improve cold executive functions, Working memory and cognitive flexibility help students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder