Towards equivalent Go/NoGo tasks across psychophysiological contexts: Recommendations for task design

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janette Smith ◽  
Sharna Jamadar
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Task Design ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
P3 Amplitude

In three studies, we examined markers of inhibitory processing (N2 and P3 amplitude, as well as response time (RT) and error rates) in Go/NoGo tasks with short vs long SOAs. We provide guidelines for task design for Go/NoGo researchers across psychophysiological methodologies, so that researchers may increase the inhibitory requirements when long SOAs are required.

scholarly journals Effects of tDCS Dosage on Working Memory in Healthy Participants

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stevan Nikolin ◽  
Donel Martin ◽  
Colleen K. Loo ◽  
Tjeerd W. Boonstra
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Response Time ◽  
Effect Size ◽  
Biological Effects ◽  
Parallel Group Design ◽  
Parallel Group ◽  
P3 Amplitude ◽  
Time Accuracy ◽  
Study Designs ◽  
Healthy Participants

AbstractBackgroundTranscranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been found to improve working memory (WM) performance in healthy participants following a single session. However, results are mixed and the overall effect size is small. Interpretation of these results is confounded by heterogeneous study designs, including differences in tDCS dose (current intensity) and sham conditions used.AimsWe systematically investigated the effect of tDCS dose on working memory using behavioural and neurophysiological outcomes.MethodsIn a single-blind parallel group design, 100 participants were randomised across five groups to receive 15 minutes of bifrontal tDCS at different current intensities (2mA, 1mA, and three sham tDCS conditions at 0.034mA, 0.016mA, or 0mA). EEG activity was acquired while participants performed a WM task prior to, during, and following tDCS. Response time, accuracy and an event-related EEG component (P3) were evaluated.ResultsWe found no significant differences in response time or performance accuracy between current intensities. The P3 amplitude was significantly lower in the 0mA condition compared to the 0.034mA, 1mA and 2mA tDCS conditions. Changes in WM accuracy were moderately correlated with changes in the P3 amplitude following tDCS compared to baseline levels (r = 0.34).ConclusionsWorking memory was not significantly altered by tDCS, regardless of dose. The P3 amplitude showed that stimulation at 1mA, 2mA and a sham condition (0.034mA) had biological effects, with the largest effect size for 1mA stimulation. These findings indicate higher sensitivity of neurophysiological outcomes to tDCS and suggests that sham stimulation previously considered inactive may alter neuronal function.

Inhibitory Function in the Stimulus-Response Compatibility Task

2005 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 249-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noriaki Tsuchida
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Response Time ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
Compatibility Effect ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Response Compatibility ◽  
Dual Task Condition ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Inhibitory Function ◽  
Stimulus Response Compatibility

Changes of a location-based inhibitory function were investigated by performing a Stimulus-Response Compatibility task under two conditions. This task allows study of the efficiency of the inhibitory function by analyzing differences in error rates and in response time under various conditions of stimulus and response compatibility. In Exp. 1, with 28 college students, the effect of a dual task on the Stimulus-Response Compatibility effect was examined. In a dual-task, a predetermined stimulus such as a color is identified and the number of times a color is displayed is counted. In this experiment, under a dual task using visual stimuli, a decline in error responses and reduction of the Stimulus-Response Compatibility effect were observed. In Exp. 2, 29 college students participated in an identical experiment with the exception that an auditory stimulus was presented as the dual task. Similar to Exp. 1, there was a significant reduction in the number of error responses in the dual-task condition. Conversely, there was no significant change in Stimulus-Response Compatibility effect as estimated by response time. These results suggest that the two visual pathways as proposed by Goodale (1995) and the evocation of intentional attention may affect the Stimulus-Response Compatibility effect.

scholarly journals Inhibition and late errors in the antisaccade task: Influence of task design

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduardo A. Aponte ◽  
Dominic G. Tschan ◽  
Klaas E. Stephan ◽  
Jakob Heinzle
Keyword(s):  
Computational Model ◽  
Trial Type ◽  
Previous Experiment ◽  
Task Design ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Voluntary Action ◽  
Antisaccade Task ◽  
Highly Correlated ◽  
Voluntary Saccades ◽  
Action Initiation

AbstractIn the antisaccade task, subjects are instructed to saccade in the opposite direction of a peripheral visual cue (PVC). Importantly, several psychiatric disorders are associated with increased error rates in this paradigm. Despite this observation, there is no consensus about the mechanism behind antisaccade errors: while often explained as inhibition failures, some studies have suggested that errors are caused by deficits in the ability to initiate voluntary saccades. Using a computational model, we recently showed that under some conditions high latency or late errors can be explained by a race process between voluntary pro- and antisaccades. A limitation of our findings is that in our previous experiment the PVC signaled the trial type, whereas in most studies, subjects are informed about the trial type before the PVC is presented. We refer to these task designs as asynchronous (AC) and synchronous cues (SC) conditions. Here, we investigated to which extent differences in design affect the type and frequency of errors in the antisaccade task. Twenty-four subjects participated in mixed blocks of pro- and antisaccade trials in both conditions. Our results demonstrate that error rates were highly correlated across task designs and a non-negligible fraction of them were classified as late errors in both conditions. In summary, our findings indicate that errors in the AC task are the result of both inhibition failures and inaccurate voluntary action initiation.

scholarly journals Internal consistency and test-retest reliability of an affective task-switching paradigm

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cindy Eckart ◽  
Dominik Kraft ◽  
Christian Fiebach
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Response Time ◽  
Internal Consistency ◽  
Task Switching ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Strong Response ◽  
Retest Reliability ◽  
Switch Costs ◽  
Test Retest Reliability

Affective flexibility refers to the flexible adaptation of behavior or thought given emotionally relevant stimuli, tasks, or contexts. Individual differences in affective flexibility have received increased interest in the past years, as they may relate to differences in the efficiency of emotion regulation and dealing with stress and adversity. One way to assess individual differences in affective flexibility is to assess the behavioral costs (in terms of increased response times or errors rates) of switching between affective and neutral tasks. However, behavioral task measures like switch costs can only be treated as trait-like individual difference characteristics if their psychometric quality has been established. To this end, we developed an affective task switching paradigm and report an analysis of the test-retest reliability (inter-session interval two weeks) as well as internal consistencies of affective switch costs. Our results show strong response time switch costs, both for switching from the neutral to the emotion task and vice versa, excellent internal consistency estimates for both measures from both sessions (Spearman-Brown corrected r = .92), and good test-retest reliabilities (ICC(2,1) of .78 and .82, respectively). Effect sizes and reliability estimates were substantially lower for switch costs calculated from error rates, which is consistent with previous literature discussing the psychometric properties of task-based cognitive measures. In conclusion, our results indicate that response time-based switch costs are well-suited as a measure of individual differences in the efficiency of affective flexibility, i.e., of dynamically adjusting behavior and thought in the context of emotional task demands.

scholarly journals Effect of lighting illuminance and colour temperature on mental workload in an office setting

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiayi Bao ◽  
Xinbo Song ◽  
Yan Li ◽  
Yinjie Bai ◽  
Qianxiang Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Mental Workload ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Oddball Paradigm ◽  
Colour Temperature ◽  
Task Load ◽  
Subjective Scale ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Nasa Task Load Index

AbstractThe mental workload of subjects was tested under different lighting conditions, with colour temperatures ranging from 3000 to 6500 K and illuminance ranging from 300 to 1000 lx. We used both psychological and physiological responses for evaluation. The former was based on NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX, NASA), and the latter was based on the electroencephalogram (EEG) P3b analysis of event-related potentials using the “oddball” paradigm experimental task. The results show that as illuminance increases, and the response time becomes longer with a colour temperature of 3000 K (P < 0.01). However, when the colour temperature is set at 6500 K, the response time becomes shorter as the illuminance increases (P < 0.01). P3b amplitudes were significantly affected by colour temperature (P = 0.009) and illuminance (P = 0.038) levels. The highest amplitudes occurred at 3000 K and 750 lx, which is consistent with the trend shown by the subjective scale. The data analysis of error rates is not significant. These results suggest that an office environment with a colour temperature of 3000 K and illumination of 750 lx, which exerts the lowest mental workload, is the most suitable for working. However, the interaction between colour temperature and illuminance in affecting the mental workload of participants is not clear. This work provides more appropriate lighting choices with colour temperature and illuminance to reduce people’s mental workload in office settings.

scholarly journals A comparison of the performance on extrinsic and intrinsic cartographic visualizations through correctness, response time and cognitive processing

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. e0250164
Author(s):  
Čeněk Šašinka ◽  
Zdeněk Stachoň ◽  
Jiří Čeněk ◽  
Alžběta Šašinková ◽  
Stanislav Popelka ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Response Time ◽  
Eye Tracking ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Soil Depth ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Eye Tracker ◽  
Map Reading ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities

The aim of this study was to compare the performance of two bivariate visualizations by measuring response correctness (error rate) and response time, and to identify the differences in cognitive processes involved in map-reading tasks by using eye-tracking methods. The present study is based on our previous research and the hypothesis that the use of different visualization methods may lead to significant cognitive-processing differences. We applied extrinsic and intrinsic visualizations in the study. Participants in the experiment were presented maps which depicted two variables (soil moisture and soil depth) and asked to identify the areas which displayed either a single condition (e.g., “find an area with low soil depth”) or both conditions (e.g., “find an area with high soil moisture and low soil depth”). The research sample was composed of 31 social sciences and humanities university students. The experiment was performed under laboratory conditions, and Hypothesis software was used for data collection. Eye-tracking data were collected for 23 of the participants. An SMI RED-m eye-tracker was used to determine whether either of the two visualization methods was more efficient for solving the given map-reading tasks. Our results showed that with the intrinsic visualization method, the participants spent significantly more time with the map legend. This result suggests that extrinsic and intrinsic visualizations induce different cognitive processes. The intrinsic method was observed to generally require more time and led to higher error rates. In summary, the extrinsic method was found to be more efficient than the intrinsic method, although the difference was less pronounced in the tasks which contained two variables, which proved to be better suited to intrinsic visualization.

Perceptual Characteristics of Consonant Production in Apraxia of Speech and Aphasia

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 1411-1431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Bislick ◽  
William D. Hula
Keyword(s):  
Error Rate ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Diagnostic Process ◽  
Apraxia Of Speech ◽  
Contextual Variables ◽  
Error Type ◽  
Type Distribution ◽  
Phonetic Features ◽  
Syllable Position

Purpose This retrospective analysis examined group differences in error rate across 4 contextual variables (clusters vs. singletons, syllable position, number of syllables, and articulatory phonetic features) in adults with apraxia of speech (AOS) and adults with aphasia only. Group differences in the distribution of error type across contextual variables were also examined. Method Ten individuals with acquired AOS and aphasia and 11 individuals with aphasia participated in this study. In the context of a 2-group experimental design, the influence of 4 contextual variables on error rate and error type distribution was examined via repetition of 29 multisyllabic words. Error rates were analyzed using Bayesian methods, whereas distribution of error type was examined via descriptive statistics. Results There were 4 findings of robust differences between the 2 groups. These differences were found for syllable position, number of syllables, manner of articulation, and voicing. Group differences were less robust for clusters versus singletons and place of articulation. Results of error type distribution show a high proportion of distortion and substitution errors in speakers with AOS and a high proportion of substitution and omission errors in speakers with aphasia. Conclusion Findings add to the continued effort to improve the understanding and assessment of AOS and aphasia. Several contextual variables more consistently influenced breakdown in participants with AOS compared to participants with aphasia and should be considered during the diagnostic process. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.9701690

The Relation Between Aerobic Fitness and Cognitive Performance

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 102-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chun-Hao Wang ◽  
Chun-Ming Shih ◽  
Chia-Liang Tsai
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Aerobic Fitness ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Mediation Model ◽  
Brain Potentials ◽  
Fitness Level ◽  
Eeg Data ◽  
Attention Performance ◽  
P3 Amplitude ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract. This study aimed to assess whether brain potentials have significant influences on the relationship between aerobic fitness and cognition. Behavioral and electroencephalographic (EEG) data was collected from 48 young adults when performing a Posner task. Higher aerobic fitness is related to faster reaction times (RTs) along with greater P3 amplitude and shorter P3 latency in the valid trials, after controlling for age and body mass index. Moreover, RTs were selectively related to P3 amplitude rather than P3 latency. Specifically, the bootstrap-based mediation model indicates that P3 amplitude mediates the relationship between fitness level and attention performance. Possible explanations regarding the relationships among aerobic fitness, cognitive performance, and brain potentials are discussed.

The Latin Square Task as a Measure of Relational Reasoning

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 296-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke J. Hearne ◽  
Damian P. Birney ◽  
Luca Cocchi ◽  
Jason B. Mattingley
Keyword(s):  
Brain Imaging ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Latin Square ◽  
Error Rates ◽  
Functional Brain Imaging ◽  
Inspection Time ◽  
Relational Reasoning ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Test Retest Reliability

Abstract. The Latin Square Task (LST) is a relational reasoning paradigm developed by Birney, Halford, and Andrews (2006) . Previous work has shown that the LST elicits typical reasoning complexity effects, such that increases in complexity are associated with decrements in task accuracy and increases in response times. Here we modified the LST for use in functional brain imaging experiments, in which presentation durations must be strictly controlled, and assessed its validity and reliability. Modifications included presenting the components within each trial serially, such that the reasoning and response periods were separated. In addition, the inspection time for each LST problem was constrained to five seconds. We replicated previous findings of higher error rates and slower response times with increasing relational complexity and observed relatively large effect sizes (η2p > 0.70, r > .50). Moreover, measures of internal consistency and test-retest reliability confirmed the stability of the LST within and across separate testing sessions. Interestingly, we found that limiting the inspection time for individual problems in the LST had little effect on accuracy relative to the unconstrained times used in previous work, a finding that is important for future brain imaging experiments aimed at investigating the neural correlates of relational reasoning.

Temporal Prediction Errors Affect Short-Term Memory Scanning Response Time

2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 333-342
Author(s):  
Roberto Limongi ◽  
Angélica M. Silva
Keyword(s):  
Response Time ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Estimation Error ◽  
Predictive Coding ◽  
Time Estimation ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Memory Scanning ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Temporal Prediction

Abstract. The Sternberg short-term memory scanning task has been used to unveil cognitive operations involved in time perception. Participants produce time intervals during the task, and the researcher explores how task performance affects interval production – where time estimation error is the dependent variable of interest. The perspective of predictive behavior regards time estimation error as a temporal prediction error (PE), an independent variable that controls cognition, behavior, and learning. Based on this perspective, we investigated whether temporal PEs affect short-term memory scanning. Participants performed temporal predictions while they maintained information in memory. Model inference revealed that PEs affected memory scanning response time independently of the memory-set size effect. We discuss the results within the context of formal and mechanistic models of short-term memory scanning and predictive coding, a Bayes-based theory of brain function. We state the hypothesis that our finding could be associated with weak frontostriatal connections and weak striatal activity.

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