Executive Function Performance in Bilingual and Monolingual Individuals with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): a Comparative Analysis of Cold (Inhibitory Control and Cognitive Flexibility) and Hot (Theory of Mind) Executive Functions.

OBJECTIVE: This research had three main objectives. The first objective was to compare the performance of individuals with ADHD and normal individuals in hot (theory of mind) and cold (cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control) executive functions. The second objective was to compare hot and cold executive functions in bilingual and monolingual individuals. The third objective of the study was to examine the interactive effect of bilingualism and ADHD on hot and cold executive functions.

METHODS: To conduct the research, a variety of tools were employed, including the language experience and proficiency questionnaire, socio-economic status questionnaire (SES), Conners' Adult ADHD Rating Scale, Go/No-Go task, Wisconsin Card Sorting Task, Raven's Progressive Matrices, and The Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test.

RESULTS: Individuals with ADHD showed deficits in both hot and cold executive functions. Another finding showed no significant difference between the bilingual and monolingual groups in cold executive functions, but there was a significant difference between the two groups in hot executive functions. Moreover, the results showed that bilingual and monolingual individuals with ADHD did not differ significantly in hot and cold executive functions.

CONCLUSION: Individuals with ADHD exhibited impairments in both cold and hot executive functions, whereas bilingualism was associated with better theory-of-mind performance but not with cold executive functions. Critically, no significant interaction between bilingualism and ADHD was observed for any executive function domain, indicating that bilingualism neither mitigated nor exacerbated ADHD-related deficits.