Validation of a battery of inhibitory control tasks reveals a multifaceted structure in non-human primates

Inhibitory control, the ability to override an inappropriate prepotent response, is crucial in many aspects of everyday life. However, the various paradigms designed to measure inhibitory control often suffer from a lack of systematic validation and have yielded mixed results. Thus the nature of thi...

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Main Authors: Louise Loyant, Bridget M. Waller, Jérôme Micheletta, Marine Joly
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: PeerJ Inc. 2022-02-01
Series:PeerJ
Subjects:
Online Access:https://peerj.com/articles/12863.pdf
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author Louise Loyant
Bridget M. Waller
Jérôme Micheletta
Marine Joly
author_facet Louise Loyant
Bridget M. Waller
Jérôme Micheletta
Marine Joly
author_sort Louise Loyant
collection DOAJ
description Inhibitory control, the ability to override an inappropriate prepotent response, is crucial in many aspects of everyday life. However, the various paradigms designed to measure inhibitory control often suffer from a lack of systematic validation and have yielded mixed results. Thus the nature of this ability remains unclear, is it a general construct or a family of distinct sub-components? Therefore, the aim of this study was first to demonstrate the content validity and the temporal repeatability of a battery of inhibitory control tasks. Then we wanted to assess the contextual consistency of performances between these tasks to better understand the structure of inhibitory control. We tested 21 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta, 12 males, nine females) in a battery of touchscreen tasks assessing three main components of inhibitory control: inhibition of a distraction (using a Distraction task), inhibition of an impulsive action (using a Go/No-go task) and inhibition of a cognitive set (using a Reversal learning task). All tasks were reliable and effective at measuring the inhibition of a prepotent response. However, while there was consistency of performance between the inhibition of a distraction and the inhibition of an action, representing a response-driven basic form of inhibition, this was not found for the inhibition of a cognitive set. We argue that the inhibition of a cognitive set is a more cognitively demanding form of inhibition. This study gives a new insight in the multifaceted structure of inhibitory control and highlights the importance of a systematic validation of cognitive tasks in animal cognition.
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spelling doaj.art-9beb37aa7aff4d5983fba9ab445d5e4b2023-12-03T10:05:24ZengPeerJ Inc.PeerJ2167-83592022-02-0110e1286310.7717/peerj.12863Validation of a battery of inhibitory control tasks reveals a multifaceted structure in non-human primatesLouise Loyant0Bridget M. Waller1Jérôme Micheletta2Marine Joly3Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Hampshire, United KingdomDepartment of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United KingdomCentre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Hampshire, United KingdomCentre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, Hampshire, United KingdomInhibitory control, the ability to override an inappropriate prepotent response, is crucial in many aspects of everyday life. However, the various paradigms designed to measure inhibitory control often suffer from a lack of systematic validation and have yielded mixed results. Thus the nature of this ability remains unclear, is it a general construct or a family of distinct sub-components? Therefore, the aim of this study was first to demonstrate the content validity and the temporal repeatability of a battery of inhibitory control tasks. Then we wanted to assess the contextual consistency of performances between these tasks to better understand the structure of inhibitory control. We tested 21 rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta, 12 males, nine females) in a battery of touchscreen tasks assessing three main components of inhibitory control: inhibition of a distraction (using a Distraction task), inhibition of an impulsive action (using a Go/No-go task) and inhibition of a cognitive set (using a Reversal learning task). All tasks were reliable and effective at measuring the inhibition of a prepotent response. However, while there was consistency of performance between the inhibition of a distraction and the inhibition of an action, representing a response-driven basic form of inhibition, this was not found for the inhibition of a cognitive set. We argue that the inhibition of a cognitive set is a more cognitively demanding form of inhibition. This study gives a new insight in the multifaceted structure of inhibitory control and highlights the importance of a systematic validation of cognitive tasks in animal cognition.https://peerj.com/articles/12863.pdfMacaqueInhibitory controlGo/No-go taskReversal learning taskDistraction taskNon-human primates
spellingShingle Louise Loyant
Bridget M. Waller
Jérôme Micheletta
Marine Joly
Validation of a battery of inhibitory control tasks reveals a multifaceted structure in non-human primates
PeerJ
Macaque
Inhibitory control
Go/No-go task
Reversal learning task
Distraction task
Non-human primates
title Validation of a battery of inhibitory control tasks reveals a multifaceted structure in non-human primates
title_full Validation of a battery of inhibitory control tasks reveals a multifaceted structure in non-human primates
title_fullStr Validation of a battery of inhibitory control tasks reveals a multifaceted structure in non-human primates
title_full_unstemmed Validation of a battery of inhibitory control tasks reveals a multifaceted structure in non-human primates
title_short Validation of a battery of inhibitory control tasks reveals a multifaceted structure in non-human primates
title_sort validation of a battery of inhibitory control tasks reveals a multifaceted structure in non human primates
topic Macaque
Inhibitory control
Go/No-go task
Reversal learning task
Distraction task
Non-human primates
url https://peerj.com/articles/12863.pdf
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