Unique Patterns of Eye Movements Characterizing Inattentive Reading in ADHD

We aimed to identify unique patterns of eye-movements measures reflecting inattentive reading among adults with and without ADHD.

We recorded eye-movements during uninterrupted text reading of typically developed (TD) and ADHD adults. First, we found significantly longer reading time for the ADHD group than the TD group. Further, we detected cases in which words were reread more than twice and found that such occasions were much more frequent in participants with ADHD than in TD participants. Moreover, we discovered that the first reading pass of these words was less sensitive to the length of the word than the first pass of words read only once, indicating a less meaningful reading.

We propose that high rate of words that were reread is a correlate of inattentive reading which is more pronounced among ADHD readers. Implications of the findings in the context of reading comprehension are discussed.