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Priming Sentence Production in Adolescents and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyper-Activity Disorder

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Abstract

Theoretical accounts of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) posit a prominent role for problems in response inhibition (Nigg 2006). A key avenue for impulsivity in children with ADHD is inappropriate language expression. In this study, we sought to determine whether poor inhibitory control affects language production in adolescents and adults with ADHD. One hundred and ninety-five participants (13–35 years old; 65% male) were presented with two pictures and a verb, and their task was to form a sentence. If deficits in response inhibition affect language production, then participants with ADHD should be more likely than non-ADHD controls to begin speaking before having formulated a plan that will allow a grammatical continuation. The results showed that the ADHD-combined subtype, in particular, was more likely to produce an ungrammatical sequence. Effects were not moderated by age or gender. These data suggest that response suppression deficits in ADHD adversely affect the basic processes of sentence formation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9JZ, UK

    Paul E. Engelhardt & Fernanda Ferreira

  2. Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, Psychology Building, East Lansing, MI, 48824-1116, USA

    Joel T. Nigg

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  1. Paul E. Engelhardt
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  2. Fernanda Ferreira
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  3. Joel T. Nigg
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Correspondence to Paul E. Engelhardt.

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Study protocols were approved by Michigan State University’s Human Research Protection Program, and conformed to APA ethical standards. This research was supported by National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health Grant R01-MH63146 to Joel T. Nigg and Fernanda Ferreira.

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Engelhardt, P.E., Ferreira, F. & Nigg, J.T. Priming Sentence Production in Adolescents and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyper-Activity Disorder. J Abnorm Child Psychol 37, 995–1006 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-009-9323-3

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