Cognitive processing of stereotypes with ADHD

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the performance of adults with ADHD on implicit and explicit stereotype tasks to investigate of automatic and higher order cognitive processing. Method: Participants with ADHD under the effect of stimulant medication (n=32) and without (n=23) and their performance was compared to the neurotypical control group (n=41). The clinical groups and the control group were comparable for age, gender and education. Automatic processing was assessed by the presence of stereotype bias on tasks. A word fragment completion task was used to assess implicit stereotyping tendency and impression formation followed by trait evaluation was used to assess explicit stereotyping. Automatic race categorisation of stimuli was also tested. Results: Performance of the clinical groups did not differ on the implicit stereotype task, explained by low prevalence of race categorisation, which was expected for the clinical groups, but a surprising finding for the NT group. There was no difference found between the performance of the three observed groups on the explicit stereotype task. Conclusion: The results suggest that adults with ADHD have impaired automatic processing but, as a result, they are not prone to apply stereotypes in their interpersonal relationships.