Abstract

Objectives: This study examined the hypothesis of cognitive functioning deficiency in the frontal lobe of conduct disordered adolescents.

Method:Cognitive functioning of frontal lobe in 21 conduct disordered male adolescents was compared with that of a matched control group.Data were collected by Stroop Test, Continuous Performance Test,and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. T-test,analysis of variance,and correlation coefficient were used for analysis of the data.

Findings:The conduct disordered adolescents scored more poorly than the control group across most of the cognitive measures assessing frontal lobe functioning. They exhibited slower reaction time and greater false alarm errors on Stroop Test,executed more omission errors on Continuous Performance Test, and performed greater perseveration errors on Wisconsin Card Sorting Test.

Results:Conduct disordered adolescents have cognitive functioning deficiencies in frontal lobe.