“Push it!” or “Hold it!”? A comparison of nicotine-avoidance training and nicotine-inhibition training in smokers motivated to quit

Rationale Recently, experimental paradigms have been developed to strengthen automatic avoidance or inhibitory responses for smoking cues. However, these procedures have not yet been directly compared regarding their effectiveness and mechanisms of action. Objective This study compared the effects of avoidance vs. inhibitory training as an add-on to a brief smoking cessation intervention. The standard Approach-Avoidance-Task (AAT) was adapted for both training types and control conditions. Methods One hundred twenty-four smokers attended behavioral counseling for smoking cessation and were thereafter randomized to one of four training conditions: avoidance-AAT, sham-avoidance-AAT, inhibition-AAT, sham-inhibition-AAT. During a 2-week training period including five training sessions, smokers in the avoidance-AAT trained to implicitly avoid all smoking-related cues, while smokers in the inhibition-AAT trained to implicitly inhibit behavioral response to smoking cues. During sham training, no such contingencies appeared. Self-report and behavioral data were assessed before and after training. Cigarette smoking and nicotine dependence were also assessed at 4- and 12-week follow-ups. Results At posttest, avoidance training was more effective in reducing daily smoking than inhibition training. However, this difference was no longer evident in follow-up assessments. All training conditions improved other smoking- and health-related outcomes. Neither training changed smoking-related approach biases or associations, but approach biases for smoking-unrelated pictures increased and Stroop interference decreased in all conditions. Smoking devaluation was also comparable in all groups. Conclusions Avoidance training might be slightly more effective in reducing smoking than inhibitory training. Overall, however, all four training types yielded equivalent therapy and training effects. Hence, a clear preference for one type of training remains premature.

Training self-other distinction facilitates perspective taking in young children

Adults and children sometimes commit ‘egocentric errors’, failing to ignore their own perspective, when interpreting others’ communication. Training imitation-inhibition reduces these errors in adults, facilitating perspective-taking. This study tested whether imitation-inhibition training may also facilitate perspective-taking in 3-6-year-olds, an age where the egocentric perspective may be particularly influential. Children participated in a 10-minute imitation-inhibition, imitation, or non-social-inhibition training (white, n=25 per condition, 33 female), and subsequently the communicative-perspective-taking Director task. Training had a significant effect (F(2, 71)= 3.268, p= .044, η2= .084): on critical trials the imitation-inhibition group selected the correct object more often than the imitation and non-social-inhibition training groups. The imitation-inhibition training thus specifically enhanced the perspective-taking process, indicating that perspective-taking from childhood onwards involves managing self-other representations.

Plasticity of inhibition in old age: durability, practice and transfer effects

Empirical research indicates age-related declines in three sub-functions of inhibition: access (keeping irrelevant information outside one's focus of attention), deletion (ridding working memory of no longer relevant information), and restraint (withholding automatic responses that are not appropriate for the task at hand). Although single-task inhibition training has been previously explored using a six-session Stroop task program, no research has been done to examine long-term durability of the practice gains or the impact of a multi-task approach to inhibition training in older adults. This dissertation fills these gaps in the literature with three studies. The first study evaluates the maintenance of Stroop training one and three years following initial training and finds evidence in support of long-term durability of single-task inhibition training in older adults. The remaining two studies explored the benefits of training all three sub-functions of inhibition in older adults. First, study 2 seeks to confirm the presence of age differences in all three sub-functions of inhibition - supporting a rationale for training these abilities in older adults. Last, study 3 examines the plasticity of all three sub-functions of inhibition in older adults across six retest practice sessions, and three levels of associated transfer: near-near (transfer to the tasks used at training, but with varying items), near (transfer to tasks that were not trained, but tap the same abilities as the training tasks), and far (transfer to tasks that were trained and tap abilities different from those trained). The findings indicate the older adults show retest practice gains in all three sub-functions of inhibition. Furthermore, strong evidence supports near-near transfer, while there is limited support for near transfer and no support for far transfer effects in older adults following three sub-functions of inhibition training. Taken together these studies contribute to the cognitive aging literature by evaluating several key features of plasticity in inhibition, including durability of training effects, retest practice and transfer effects. These findings have implications for the development of effective cognitive training programs in older adults.

Cognitive plasticity of inhibition in older adults

Cognitive plasticity has been well documented in the cognitive aging literature; however, little work has been done to investigate the plasticity of inhibition among older adults. Inhibition functions to keep irrelevant information outside the focus of attention, and has been demonstrated to be of central importance to a variety of cognitive abilities known to decline with normal aging (Hasher et al., 2007). Using the Stroop task (Stroop, 1935), 28 older adults were trained across six sessions. Participants were randomly assigned to two feedback groups: summary feedback (SF) and individualized and adaptive feedback (IAF), to evaluate whether the type of feedback provided during training impacted performance gains. Findings indicated that older adults had improved inhibitory performance across sessions regardless of the type of feedback received. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that individuals with slow speed of processing and low executive control benefited the most from inhibition training.

Plasticity of inhibition in old age: durability, practice and transfer effects

Empirical research indicates age-related declines in three sub-functions of inhibition: access (keeping irrelevant information outside one's focus of attention), deletion (ridding working memory of no longer relevant information), and restraint (withholding automatic responses that are not appropriate for the task at hand). Although single-task inhibition training has been previously explored using a six-session Stroop task program, no research has been done to examine long-term durability of the practice gains or the impact of a multi-task approach to inhibition training in older adults. This dissertation fills these gaps in the literature with three studies. The first study evaluates the maintenance of Stroop training one and three years following initial training and finds evidence in support of long-term durability of single-task inhibition training in older adults. The remaining two studies explored the benefits of training all three sub-functions of inhibition in older adults. First, study 2 seeks to confirm the presence of age differences in all three sub-functions of inhibition - supporting a rationale for training these abilities in older adults. Last, study 3 examines the plasticity of all three sub-functions of inhibition in older adults across six retest practice sessions, and three levels of associated transfer: near-near (transfer to the tasks used at training, but with varying items), near (transfer to tasks that were not trained, but tap the same abilities as the training tasks), and far (transfer to tasks that were trained and tap abilities different from those trained). The findings indicate the older adults show retest practice gains in all three sub-functions of inhibition. Furthermore, strong evidence supports near-near transfer, while there is limited support for near transfer and no support for far transfer effects in older adults following three sub-functions of inhibition training. Taken together these studies contribute to the cognitive aging literature by evaluating several key features of plasticity in inhibition, including durability of training effects, retest practice and transfer effects. These findings have implications for the development of effective cognitive training programs in older adults.

Cognitive plasticity of inhibition in older adults

Cognitive plasticity has been well documented in the cognitive aging literature; however, little work has been done to investigate the plasticity of inhibition among older adults. Inhibition functions to keep irrelevant information outside the focus of attention, and has been demonstrated to be of central importance to a variety of cognitive abilities known to decline with normal aging (Hasher et al., 2007). Using the Stroop task (Stroop, 1935), 28 older adults were trained across six sessions. Participants were randomly assigned to two feedback groups: summary feedback (SF) and individualized and adaptive feedback (IAF), to evaluate whether the type of feedback provided during training impacted performance gains. Findings indicated that older adults had improved inhibitory performance across sessions regardless of the type of feedback received. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that individuals with slow speed of processing and low executive control benefited the most from inhibition training.

Exploring Strategies to Optimise the Impact of Food-Specific Inhibition Training on Children’s Food Choices

Food-specific inhibition training (FSIT) is a computerised task requiring response inhibition to energy-dense foods within a reaction-time game. Previous work indicates that FSIT can increase the number of healthy foods (relative to energy-dense foods) children choose, and decrease calories consumed from sweets and chocolate. Across two studies, we explored the impact of FSIT variations (e.g., different response signals, different delivery modes) on children’s food choices within a time-limited hypothetical food-choice task. In Study 1, we varied the FSIT Go/No-Go signals to be emotive (happy vs. sad faces) or neutral (green vs. red signs). One-hundred-and-fifty-seven children were randomly allocated to emotive-FSIT, neutral-FSIT, or a non-food control task. Children participated in groups of 4–15. No significant FSIT effects were observed on food choices (all values of p > 0.160). Healthy-food choices decreased over time regardless of condition (p < 0.050). The non-significant effects could be explained by lower accuracy on energy-dense No-Go trials than in previous studies, possibly due to distraction in the group-testing environment. In Study 2, we compared computer-based FSIT (using emotive signals) and app-based FSIT (using neutral signals) against a non-food control with a different sample of 206 children, but this time children worked one-on-one with the experimenter. Children’s accuracy on energy-dense No-Go trials was higher in this study. Children in the FSIT-computer group chose significantly more healthy foods at post-training (M = 2.78, SE = 0.16) compared to the control group (M = 2.02, SE = 0.16, p = 0.001). The FSIT-app group did not differ from either of the other two groups (M = 2.42, SE = 0.16, both comparisons p > 0.050). Healthy choices decreased over time in the control group (p = 0.001) but did not change in the two FSIT groups (both p > 0.300) supporting previous evidence that FSIT may have a beneficial effect on children’s food choices. Ensuring that children perform FSIT with high accuracy (e.g., by using FSIT in quiet environments and avoiding group-testing) may be important for impacts on food choices though. Future research should continue to explore methods of optimising FSIT as a healthy-eating intervention for children.

Can inhibition or shifting training enhance cognitive abilities in emerging adults?

Executive functions enable and support most of our daily cognitive functioning. Within the number of executive functions proposed, updating, inhibition and shifting are most often considered as the three core executive functions. Cognitive training paradigms provide a platform for a possible enhancement of these functions. Since updating training has been studied to a greater extent, we wanted to investigate the effectiveness of inhibition and shifting training in this study. Emerging adults (psychology students) were randomly assigned either to the inhibition training (based on the Simon task; n = 36) or to the shifting training (based on the task switching paradigm; n = 35). Both groups underwent twelve 20-minute sessions distributed over four weeks. Measurements before and after the training included criterion tasks (i.e. the training tasks), near-transfer tasks (i.e. tasks that address the trained functions but use different types of stimuli or rules to respond), and far-transfer tasks (i.e., tasks that address untrained cognitive functions). The control participants (n = 36) were tested with a combination of these tasks. Both training groups improved their criteria task performance over time, while convincing training-related gains were not found in either near- or far-transfer tasks. This study raises some conceptual questions for the training of executive functions with respect to a sample of emerging adults with above-average cognitive abilities, motivational elements of training, and the role of executive functions in more complex everyday cognitive activities.