title: Evaluation of relational reasoning by a transitive inference task in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
abstract: Here we explored whether children with ADHD have a deficit in relational reasoning, a skill subtending the acquisition of many cognitive abilities and social rules.
  
  
  
  We analyzed the performance of a group of children with ADHD during a transitive inference task, a task requiring first to learn the reciprocal relationship between adjacent items of a rank ordered series (e.g., A>B; B>C; C>D; D>E; E>F), and second, to deduct the relationship between novel pairs of items never matched during the learning (e.g., B>D; C>E).
  
  
  
  As a main result, we observed that children with ADHD were impaired in performing inferential reasoning problems. The deficit in relational reasoning was found to be related to the difficulty in managing a unified representation of ordered items.
  
  
  
  The present finding documented a novel deficit in ADHD, contributing to improving the understanding of the disorder. (PsycINFO Database Record
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology.
authors.forename: Emiliano
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Brunamonti
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS.
authors.forename: Floriana
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Costanzo
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mammì
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rufini
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS.
authors.forename: Diletta
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Veneziani
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology.
authors.forename: Pierpaolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pani
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vicari
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ferraina
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Child Neuropsychiatry Unit, Bambino Gesù Children's Hospital, IRCCS.
authors.forename: Deny
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Menghini
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010153:Paired-Associate Learning; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011340:Problem Solving; D011594:Psychometrics