skip to main content

Attention:

The NSF Public Access Repository (PAR) system and access will be unavailable from 11:00 PM ET on Thursday, February 13 until 2:00 AM ET on Friday, February 14 due to maintenance. We apologize for the inconvenience.


Title: The interplay of ADHD characteristics and executive functioning with the GPA and divergent thinking of engineering students: A conceptual replication and extension
Characteristics of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and executive functioning difficulties have been found to correspond with poorer academic outcomes on the one hand and enhanced divergent thinking on the other hand. The current study was conducted to better understand the relationship between ADHD characteristics, executive functioning difficulties, divergent thinking, and academic outcomes by conceptually replicating and expanding on a previous study. Undergraduate engineering students ( N = 199) at a public university in the northeastern United States completed self-report measures of ADHD characteristics and daily executive functioning, as well as divergent thinking (figural and verbal) and intelligence quotient (IQ) tests. The results of a series of multiple regression models showed that (1) executive functioning difficulties negatively, and non-verbal IQ and figural divergent thinking positively, predicted engineering grade point average (GPA; obtained from the university registrar’s office), (2) GPA and verbal IQ positively predicted figural divergent thinking scores, and (3) verbal IQ positively predicted verbal divergent thinking scores. A series of multiple regression models testing the assertion that controlling for IQ would strengthen the relationship between divergent thinking and ADHD characteristics or executive functioning were not supported but did show associations between select components of characteristics and divergent thinking. Taken together, these results support previous conclusions that students with ADHD characteristics and executive functioning difficulties may struggle academically yet exhibit select enhanced divergent thinking abilities.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1653854
PAR ID:
10393078
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Frontiers in Psychology
Volume:
13
ISSN:
1664-1078
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Abstract Background

    Creativity is increasingly recognized as an important skill for success in the field of engineering, but most traditional, post‐secondary engineering education programs do not reward creative efforts. Failing to recognize creativity or creative efforts can have particularly negative effects for those students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), who may exhibit enhanced divergent thinking ability yet struggle in the traditional educational environment.

    Purpose/Hypothesis

    This study was conducted to investigate how ADHD characteristics, academic aptitude, and one important component of creativity (divergent thinking) contribute to academic performance in engineering programs and how traditional markers of academic performance and ADHD characteristics predict divergent thinking.

    Design/Method

    Undergraduate engineering students (n= 60) completed measures of ADHD symptoms and divergent thinking. Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores and grade point average (GPA) were collected from university records, and hypotheses were tested using a series of multivariate regression models.

    Results

    Verbal SAT scores were the only positive predictor of overall GPA and engineering GPA. ADHD characteristics did not significantly predict overall GPA but negatively predicted engineering GPA. ADHD characteristics were the only positive predictor of divergent thinking ability.

    Conclusions

    ADHD characteristics negatively predict academic performance (i.e., GPA) in engineering programs but are more predictive of divergent thinking ability than traditional markers of academic performance.

     
    more » « less
  2. Abstract

    The current study addresses gaps in our understanding of the relationship between creative cognition, intelligence (IQ), and executive functioning (EF). Undergraduate students completed an IQ test, verbal and figural divergent thinking (DT) tests, and a self‐assessment of EF, across four study sessions. Participant data (N = 199) were analyzed using linear regression and PROCESS moderation models. Results demonstrated that EF interacts with IQ to predict figural and verbal DT in distinct ways, with different patterns emerging from different methods of scoring DT. Using traditional DT scoring,Gf(but notGc) significantly moderated the relationship between EF and scores on both verbal and figural DT tasks. Low EF was associated with diminished DT scores for those with lowGfscores, unrelated for those with relatively higherGf, and enhanced scores for those with the highestGf. Using originality ratio scores, low EF was associated with diminished originality in verbal DT responses for those with low IQ (bothGfandGc), unrelated for those with relatively higher IQ, and enhanced originality for those with the highestGc(but notGf) scores. Thus, there are several nuances in the way that EF interacts with IQ to predict DT.

     
    more » « less
  3. This study utilized data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (N = 14,860) to examine whether early‐life family income (age 0–5) predicted long‐term academic achievement (age 16–18) and to investigate the role of executive function (EF) assessed multiple times across age 7–11 in explaining this association. Task‐based EF was a significant mediator between early‐life family income and later academic achievement in every model. This mediating pathway persisted when adjusting for a comprehensive panel of covariates including verbal IQ, sex, family income at ages 8 and 18, and early‐life temperament. Additionally, teacher‐rated and parent‐rated EF mediated in some models. Overall, these findings suggest that childhood EF may play an important role in perpetuating income‐based educational disparities.

     
    more » « less
  4. Whether and to what extent kindergarten children's executive functions (EF) constitute promising targets of early intervention is currently unclear. This study examined whether kindergarten children's EF predicted their second‐grade academic achievement and behavior. This was done using (a) a longitudinal and nationally representative sample (N = 8,920, Mage = 97.6 months), (b) multiple measures of EF, academic achievement, and behavior, and (c) extensive statistical control including for domain‐specific and domain‐general lagged dependent variables. All three measures of EF—working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibitory control—positively and significantly predicted reading, mathematics, and science achievement. In addition, inhibitory control negatively predicted both externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors. Children's EF constitute promising targets of experimentally evaluated interventions for increasing academic and behavioral functioning. 
    more » « less
  5. Increasing evidence suggests that specific memory systems (e.g., semantic vs. episodic) may support specific creative thought processes. However, there are a number of inconsistencies in the literature regarding the strength, direction, and influence of different memory (semantic, episodic, working, and short-term) and creativity (divergent and convergent thinking) types, as well as the influence of external factors (age, stimuli modality) on this purported relationship. In this meta-analysis, we examined 525 correlations from 79 published studies and unpublished datasets, representing data from 12,846 individual participants. We found a small but significant (r = .19) correlation between memory and creative cognition. Among semantic, episodic, working, and short-term memory, all correlations were significant, but semantic memory – particularly verbal fluency, the ability to strategically retrieve information from long-term memory – was found to drive this relationship. Further, working memory capacity was found to be more strongly related to convergent than divergent creative thinking. We also found that within visual creativity, the relationship with visual memory was greater than that of verbal memory, but within verbal creativity, the relationship with verbal memory was greater than that of visual memory. Finally, the memory-creativity correlation was larger for children compared to young adults despite no impact of age on the overall effect size. These results yield three key conclusions: (1) semantic memory supports both verbal and nonverbal creative thinking, (2) working memory supports convergent creative thinking, and (3) the cognitive control of memory is central to performance on creative thinking tasks. 
    more » « less