Working Memory Training in College Students With Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder/Learning Disabilities

NCT ID: NCT01154686

Last Updated: 2010-07-01

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: UNKNOWN
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 30 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2009-09-30
• Study Completion Date: 2010-09-30

Brief Summary

The overall objective of the current study is to determine whether computerized Working Memory (WM) training will enhance WM capacity in college students with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)/Learning Disabilities (LD). There are also three additional objectives. The first is to determine whether improvements in WM will generalize to secondary outcome tasks, such as inhibitory control and planning. The second objective is to examine whether WM training will also ameliorate ADHD symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity. The last objective is to investigate whether improvements will be maintained at a two month follow-up period.

It is expected that the computerized WM training program will enhance WM capacity in college students with ADHD. In addition, it is believed that these increases in WM capacity will also lead to improvements in other executive functions. It is also hypothesized that WM training will lead to a reduction in ADHD symptomology. Lastly, these improvements should be maintained at three month follow-up.

Conditions

Attention Deficit Disorder

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NA
• Intervention Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Interventions

Cogmed

The Cogmed Working Memory Training Program will be used as the experimental program because of preliminary evidence indicating its effectiveness in enhancing WM and reducing behavioural symptoms of inattention/hyperactivity in children. This software-based training program was designed to improve WM abilities, particularly in children with ADHD or severe attention problems. Training is implemented with a software program (RoboMemo©). It includes a set of auditory verbal and visual-spatial WM tasks presented via computer. All tasks involve: maintenance of simultaneous mental representations of multiple stimuli, unique sequencing of stimulus order in each trial and progressive adaptation of difficulty level as a function of individual performance.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Diagnosis of ADHD/Learning Disability
• registered as a university student (full or part time)
• registered at accessibilities services
• taking at least one course

Exclusion Criteria

• On a leave

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 35 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

University of Toronto

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

OISE/University of Toronto

Principal Investigators

Rachel Gropper, MA

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Toronto

Locations

University of Toronto

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

Canada

Central Contacts

Rachel Gropper, MA

Role: CONTACT

rachelgropper@hotmail.com

(416) 587-7944

Facility Contacts

Rachel Gropper, MA

Role: primary

Other Identifiers

23977

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id