Dr. Sajjad Rezaei, Mrs. Seyyede Elaheh Hosseini, Dr. Azra Zebardast,
Volume 12, Issue 2 (Volume12, Issue 2 2024)
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disturbance. Besides drug therapy's effectiveness, non-drug treatments like cognitive therapies, particularly computer-based cognitive rehabilitation (CBCR), are gaining much attention today. This study assessed the applicability and the effectiveness of the Captain's Log software on improving change blindness and response selection in children with ADHD. The design was single-group quasi-experimental with pre-test and post-test. Before and after the implementation of CBCR, the change detection and Simon effect tasks were performed through CogLab software to measure levels of change blindness and response selection, respectively. Six boys from Babol, aged 7 to 12 years old were selected through purposive sampling and received 10 sessions of CBCR twice a week with each session lasting 40 to 45 minutes. The results of the Wilcoxon test indicated that these children improved their response score in change blindness with flicker (z=-2.041,exact p<0.05); In addition, the response time to this test was significantly reduced (z=-1.782,exact p<0.05). However, the correct response score did not show significant improvement in the non-flicker condition (z=-1.732, exact p>0.05). Also, the time required for this test did not decrease significantly (z=-1.572, exact p>0.05). The response selection ability for spatial congruence condition had a significant decrease in speed (Z=-2.201, exact p<0.05); But in the case of spatial incongruence, no significant improvement was observed (z=-1.363, exact p>0.05). Results indicate relying on the brain plasticity and considering the repetition of cognitive operations that lead to increased cognitive skills, change blindness can be improved. These interventions were somewhat successful in increasing the desirable pausing behavior in response selection for ADHD children.
