Processamento da coesão correferencial na leitura de parágrafos por adultos com e sem TDAH

Abstract

This research is based on the general hypothesis that different types of anaphoric coreferential cohesion impose distinct cognitive demands during reading processing in adults with and without ADHD, such that certain types of retrieval become more costly, and that this cost differs between groups. The general objectives are to explain aspects of anaphoric referential cohesion processing in Brazilian Portuguese, observing this process in adults with and without ADHD, and to investigate possible differences in relation to individuals with typical development. Specifically, the objectives are to characterize linguistic and cognitive aspects of ADHD with regard to coreferential processing; to contribute to studies that interrelate disorders that affect language with linguistic processing; and to provide evidence that can support the development of pedagogical or clinical interventions for individuals with ADHD. We also aim to explain whether online processing is affected by the different types of cohesion: explicit, implicit, and broken, and whether the types of anaphora (repeated noun, pronoun, and hypernym) have different processing costs. A sample of 32 participants voluntarily participated in this experiment: 16 adults with a medical diagnosis of ADHD and 16 adults with typical neurodevelopment, aged 18 or older, who met the inclusion criteria and were pursuing at least a bachelor's degree. A self-paced reading experiment was conducted to analyze the processing of anaphoric coreferential cohesion in paragraphs and the types of cohesion. The data showed no significant differences between the groups with and without ADHD. A statistically significant effect was observed in both groups regarding the different types of cohesion (explicit, implicit, and broken) and the different types of anaphora (pronoun, repeated noun, and hyperonymy), indicating more costly processing of implicit cohesion, when the subject requires inference to reach the antecedent, and less demanding processing of pronoun coreference. Therefore, it can be concluded that there are different processing costs for the different types of cohesion, especially implicit cohesion, in individuals with and without ADHD, when compared with each other and in the type of task proposed here. However, ADHD does not appear to present greater processing difficulties. Further studies need to be conducted with a larger sample, including testing of executive functions, controlling medication use by the clinical group, and considering the reading habits of both groups.