The effect of task-relevant and irrelevant anxiety-provoking stimuli on response inhibition

The impact of anxiety-provoking stimuli on the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART; Robertson, Manly, Andrade, Baddeley, & Yiend, 1997), and response inhibition more generally, is currently unclear. Participants completed four SARTs embedded with picture stimuli of two levels of emotion (negative or neutral) and two levels of task-relevance (predictive or non-predictive of imminent No-Go stimuli). Negative pictures had a small but detectable adverse effect on performance regardless of their task-relevance. Overall, response times and rates of commission errors were more dependent upon the predictive value (relevance) of the pictures than their attention-capturing nature (i.e., negative valence). The findings raise doubt over whether anxiety improves response inhibition, and also lend support to a response strategy perspective of SART performance, as opposed to a mindlessness or mind-wandering explanation.     

Perceptual decoupling or motor decoupling?

The current investigation was conducted to elucidate whether errors of commission in the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) are indicators of perceptual or motor decoupling. Twenty-eight participants completed SARTs with motor and perceptual aspects of the task manipulated. The participants completed four different SART blocks whereby stimuli location uncertainty and stimuli acquisition were manipulated. In previous studies of more traditional sustained attention tasks stimuli location uncertainty reduces sustained attention performance. In the case of the SART the motor manipulation (stimuli acquisition), but not the perceptual manipulation (stimuli location uncertainty) significantly reduced commission errors. The results suggest that the majority of SART commission errors are likely to be indicators of motor decoupling not necessarily perceptual decoupling.     

Search asymmetry, sustained attention, and response inhibition

In the present experiment, we used search asymmetry to test whether the sustained attention to response task is a better measure of response inhibition or sustained attention. Participants performed feature present and feature absent target detection tasks using either a sustained attention to response task (SART; high Go low No-Go) or a traditionally formatted task (TFT; high No-Go low Go) response format. In addition to performance, we employed functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure lateral cerebral oxygenation levels and self-reports of Tense Arousal, Energetic Arousal, task related and unrelated thoughts occurring during the tasks. Detections were lower and reaction times longer in the feature absent search than the feature present search regardless of response format. Detections were lower, but reaction times shorter in the SART than the TFT regardless of feature search. Greater right than left frontal hemisphere activation occurred in the SART than the TFT. In addition, the SART was more fatiguing based on self-reports than the TFT, but there were no differences in Task-Unrelated Thoughts across task conditions. Overall, the results suggest the SART places high response inhibition, not necessarily sustained attention, demands on participants.     

The Attention-Lapse and Motor Decoupling accounts of SART performance are not mutually exclusive

There is an ongoing debate about the mechanisms purported to underlie performance in the Sustained-Attention-to-Response Task (SART). Whereas the Attention-Lapse account posits that SART errors result from attentional disengagement, the Motor Decoupling account proposes that SART errors result from failures to inhibit a fast, prepotent motor response, despite adequate attention to the task. That SART performance might be fully accounted for by motor decoupling is problematic for a Attention-Lapse account, and for the use of the SART as an index of attention lapses. To test whether SART performance is in fact fully accounted for by motor decoupling, I examined the relation between SART performance and attention lapses while controlling for motor decoupling. The results were clear: The SART was associated with attention lapses independently of motor decoupling. Thus, the present study suggests that both accounts are correct and that the SART is a valid measure of attention lapses.     

Mug handle affordance and automatic response inhibition: Behavioural and electrophysiological evidence

Behavioural evidence has shown that the perception of an object's handle automatically activates the corresponding action representation. The activation appears to be inhibited if the object is a task-irrelevant prime mug that is presented very briefly prior to responding to the target arrow. The present study uses an electrophysiological indicator of automatic response priming, the lateralized readiness potential (LRP), to investigate the mechanisms of this inhibition effect. We presumed that this effect would reflect motor self-inhibition processes. The self-inhibition explanation of the effect would assume that the effect reflects activation-followed-by-inhibition observed rapidly after the offset of the prime at the primary motor cortex. However, the results showed that the effect is not associated with modulation of the early LRP deflections. In contrast, the inhibition manifested itself in the later LRP deflections that we assume to be linked to interference in the processing of response-related aspects of the target. We propose that the LRP pattern is similar to what would be predicted from the negative priming explanation of the effect. The study sheds light on understanding inhibition mechanisms associated with automatically activated affordance representations.     

Sad mood,emotion regulation,and response inhibition

ABSTRACT

Affect-as-information models, resource allocation models, and arousal biased competition theory predict different effects of mood on cognition. To test these theories, this study examines the effect of sad mood on response inhibition (RI) and whether emotion dysregulation impacts this potential relationship. Participants were 273 undergraduates who wrote about either a typical day or a sad event from their life. They self-reported mood and emotion regulation difficulties, and RI was a composite score of Colour-Word Stroop, Stop-Signal, and go/no-go computerised tasks. The intensity of self-reported sad mood did not affect RI as predicted, but those who wrote about sad events had worse RI. Worse emotion regulation also predicted worse RI. Cognitive loads, rumination, and mind-wandering are discussed as possible mechanisms. Findings are extended from well-established areas such as working memory to the less-established area of RI.     

Reliability and plasticity of response inhibition and interference control

This study investigated the internal reliability, temporal stability and plasticity of commonly used measures of inhibition-related functions. Stop-signal, go/no-go, antisaccade, Simon, Eriksen flanker, Stroop and Continuous Performance tasks were administered twice to 23 healthy participants over a period of approximately 11 weeks in order to assess test–retest correlations, internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha), and systematic between as well as within session performance changes. Most of the inhibition-related measures showed good test–retest reliabilities and internal consistencies, with the exception of the stop-signal reaction time measure, which showed poor reliability. Generally no systematic performance changes were observed across the two assessments with the exception of four variables of the Eriksen flanker, Simon and Stroop task which showed reduced variability of reaction time and an improvement in the response time for incongruent trials at second assessment. Predominantly stable performance within one test session was shown for most measures. Overall, these results are informative for studies with designs requiring temporally stable parameters e.g. genetic or longitudinal treatment studies.