In classical stroop task ADHD children show core deficit in interference control in the condition of the incongruent color word: more errors and slower speed. In previous studies children with emotional disorder were found to show attentional bias in emotional stroop task in which children are asked to name quickly the color of emotional words such as ‘anxious’, ‘worried’, ‘sad’ and ‘disappointed’, while ignoring the meaning of the words. The aim of this study was to evaluate emotional stroop effect between ADHD and emotional disordered children to investigate attentional bias toward emotional stimuli.

The subjects were 22 ADHD children and 14 children who have emotional disorder, including anxiety, tic or depressive disorder. Classical stroop task as well as emotional stroop task, IQ test, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children(STAIC) and Children's Depression Inventory(CDI) were administered individually to all children.

1. 1. Children with emotional disorder obtained higher CDI and STAIC scores than ADHD children.

2. 2. There were no significant group difference in emotional stroop task between children with emotional disorder and ADHD even after controlling IQ.

We could not found that children with emotional disorder show more attentional bias toward anxiety or depression-relevant stimuli than ADHD children. Further research with large subjects and more sophisticated assessment of emotional problem is needed to elucidate emotional stroop effect.