This study assesses attention and response control through visual and auditory stimuli in a primary care pediatric sample. The sample consisted of 191 participants aged between 7 and 13 years old. It was divided into 2 groups: (a) 90 children with ADHD, according to diagnostic (DSM-IV-TR) (APA, 2002) and clinical (ADHD Rating Scale-IV) (DuPaul, Power, Anastopoulos, & Reid, 1998) criteria, and (b) 101 children without a history of ADHD. The aims were: (a) to determine and compare the performance of both groups in attention and response control, (b) to identify attention and response control deficits in the ADHD group. Assessments were carried out using the Integrated Visual and Auditory Continuous Performance Test (IVA/CPT, Sandford & Turner, 2002). Results showed that the ADHD group had visual and auditory attention deficits, F(3, 170) = 14.38; p < .01, deficits in fine motor regulation (Welch´s t-test = 44.768; p < .001) and sensory/motor activity (Welch’st-test = 95.683, p < .001; Welch’s t-test = 79.537, p < .001). Both groups exhibited a similar performance in response control, F(3, 170) = .93, p = .43.Children with ADHD showed inattention, mental processing speed deficits, and loss of concentration with visual stimuli. Both groups yielded a better performance in attention with auditory stimuli.

Error trials are associated with faster responses than correct trials in simple discrimination tasks suggesting that errors result from impulsive responding. We investigated the relationship between error negativity (Ne/ERN), an event-related potential associated with error detection, and two behavioral indices of response control: response time (RT) differences between incorrect and correct trials (an index of impulsivity) and percentage of errors. Response-locked ERPs were collected from 17 young adults during a visual flanker task. Consistent with previous findings, participants were significantly faster on error trials. However, participants who exhibited larger Ne/ERN peak amplitudes had significantly smaller RT differences, suggesting a more controlled response strategy. Furthermore, Ne/ERN latencies were positively associated with percentage of errors. These findings are consistent with the view that the Ne/ERN reflects the activity of a monitoring system that is closely linked to remedial systems responsible for individual differences in response control or impulsive behavior.