Open Access

ARTICLE

Monetary reward and punishment effects on behavioral inhibition in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder tendencies

Huifang Yang^1,*, Peixuan Kuang²

1 Department of Psychology, School of Education Sciences, Guangdong Polytechnic Normal University, Guangzhou, 510665, China
2 Heyuan Dapugang Primary School of Guangdong Province, Heyuan, 517000, China

* Corresponding Authors: Huifang Yang. Email: ,

Journal of Psychology in Africa 2025, 35(4), 535-540. https://doi.org/10.32604/jpa.2025.070124

Received 11 February 2025; Accepted 26 May 2025; Issue published 17 August 2025

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of monetary rewards and punishments on the behavioral inhibition in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) tendencies. The present study adopted the signal stopping task paradigm, with 66 children with ADHD tendencies as the research subjects. A mixed design of 2 (reward and punishment type: reward, punishment) × 2 (stimulus type: monetary stimulus, social stimulus) was used. The analysis applied a between intervention group (with reward and punishment type variables) and within type of reward approach (by stimulus type as intra subject variables). The results showed that monetary punishment better promotes behavioral inhibition in children with an ADHD tendency than does reward. In addition, this study showed that monetary punishment and social rewards affected the speed–accuracy trade-off of inhibited behavior in children with an ADHD tendency. These findings suggest that withdrawal of a material token resulted in more behavioural compliance in children with an ADHD tendency.

---

Keywords

---