Year: 2010
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: A process of response inhibition is often held to be recruited \nin situations where it is necessary to withhold or inhibit a \nprepotent response. Individual differences in the efficacy of \nthis function have been held to underlie individual differences \nin behaviour on tasks such as the Stroop colour-naming task \nand the stop-signal task. These claims, however, have been \nsupported only with correlational analyses and informal \nargument. This paper considers the operationalisation of \nresponse inhibition by exploring existing mathematical and \nprocess models of both the Stroop and stop-signal tasks. We \nidentify parameters that might underlie individual differences \nin the performance of the tasks and consider potential \nrelations between those parameters. It is shown that (a) at \nleast three potential inter-relations between parameters of the \ntask models may lead to inter-task correlations, and (b) the \nobserved correlations arise when attentional bias parameters \nin the models are equated but not when inhibition parameters \nare equated. We conclude that the ascription of such \ncorrelations to a process of response inhibition is premature.
Authors: Eddy J. Davelaar, Richard Cooper
Institution: Birkbeck, University of London
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2131923874