Background: Research on altered motivational processes in ADHD has focused on reward. The sensitivity of children with ADHD to punishment has received limited attention. We evaluated the effects of punishment on the behavioral allocation of children with and without ADHD from the United States, New Zealand, and Japan, applying the generalized matching law. Methods: Participants in two studies (Furukawa et al., 2017, 2019) were 210 English-speaking (145 ADHD) and 93 Japanese-speaking (34 ADHD) children. They completed an operant task in which they chose between playing two simultaneously available games. Rewards became available every 10 seconds on average, arranged equally across the two games. Responses on one game were punished four times as often as responses on the other. The asymmetrical punishment schedules should bias responding to the less punished alternative. Results: Compared with controls, children with ADHD from both samples allocated significantly more responses to the less frequently punished game, suggesting greater behavioral sensitivity to punishment. For these children, the bias toward the less punished alternative increased with time on task. Avoiding the more punished game resulted in missed reward opportunities and reduced earnings. English-speaking controls showed some preference for the less punished game. The behavior of Japanese controls was not significantly influenced by the frequency of punishment, despite slowed response times after punished trials and immediate shifts away from the punished game, indicating awareness of punishment. Conclusion: Punishment exerted greater control over the behavior of children with ADHD, regardless of their cultural background. This may be a common characteristic of the disorder. Avoidance of punishment led to poorer task performance. Caution is required in the use of punishment, especially with children with ADHD. The group difference in punishment sensitivity was more pronounced in the Japanese sample; this may create a negative halo effect for children with ADHD in this culture.

背景：对 ADHD 中改变的动机过程的研究集中在奖励上。多动症儿童对惩罚的敏感性受到的关注有限。我们应用广义匹配法评估了惩罚对美国、新西兰和日本患有和未患有 ADHD 的儿童的行为分配的影响。方法：两项研究 (Furukawa et al., 2017, 2019) 的参与者是 210 名说英语 (145 ADHD) 和 93 名说日语 (34 ADHD) 的儿童。他们完成了一项操作性任务，他们在两个同时可用的游戏之间做出选择。奖励平均每 10 秒提供一次，在两场比赛中平均安排。对一场比赛的回应受到惩罚的频率是对另一场比赛的回应的四倍。不对称的惩罚计划应该偏向于对惩罚较少的替代方案做出反应。结果：与对照组相比，来自两个样本的 ADHD 儿童对惩罚频率较低的游戏分配了显着更多的反应，表明对惩罚的行为敏感性更高。对于这些孩子来说，对惩罚较少的替代方案的偏见随着任务时间的增加而增加。避免惩罚更重的游戏会导致错失奖励机会并减少收入。讲英语的控件显示出对惩罚较少的游戏的一些偏好。日本控制的行为不受惩罚频率的显着影响，尽管在受惩罚的审判后反应时间变慢并且立即远离受惩罚的游戏，表明有惩罚意识。结论：无论文化背景如何，惩罚都可以更好地控制多动症儿童的行为。这可能是该疾病的共同特征。逃避惩罚会导致较差的任务绩效。在使用惩罚时需要谨慎，尤其是对于患有多动症的儿童。在日本样本中，惩罚敏感性的组别差异更为明显；这可能会对这种文化中的多动症儿童产生负面的光环效应。