Neuropsychological Profiles of Three Subtypes of Impulsivity in the General Population: A Young Adults Study

The impulsivity construct has been investigated in the psychological literature as both a personality factor and a manifestation of the cognitive functioning of individuals. In addition, an increasing number of studies have shown that impulsivity is not a unitary concept and that it must be conceive...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mario Rodolfo Squillace Louhau, Jimena Picón-Janeiro, Nicolás Mazzei, Alejandra Villar, Susana Azzollini
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidad de San Buenaventura 2019-05-01
Series:International Journal of Psychological Research
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Online Access:https://revistas.usb.edu.co/index.php/IJPR/article/view/3648/3298
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Summary:The impulsivity construct has been investigated in the psychological literature as both a personality factor and a manifestation of the cognitive functioning of individuals. In addition, an increasing number of studies have shown that impulsivity is not a unitary concept and that it must be conceived of as several subtypes. We investigated whether a self-report test of three types of impulsivity could be a good predictor of cognitive functioning in healthy individuals. The sample was composed of 230 subjects (65% women) with a mean age of 28.4 years (SD = 13.6 years) from the general population of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The sample was evaluated using the Questionnaire on Compulsive Urgency, Sensation Seeking, and Impulsive Improvidence (CUBI-18; Squillace Louhau, & Picón Janerio, 2019), which measures three impulsivity subtypes. A battery of neuropsychological tests was administered to measure not only executive-attentional functioning, verbal and non-verbal fluency, and speed of processing, but also strategies in the decision-making process. The results showed a differential profile of the three subtypes of impulsivity. Compulsive Urgency was associated with greater executive- attentional difficulties, Impulsive Improvidence with lower fluency in processing nonverbal information, and Sensation Seeking with better general cognitive performance and risk-taking during decision-making.
ISSN:2011-2084
2011-7922