An Inquisit-web protocol for calculating composite inhibitory control capacity score : an individual differences approach

In the present paper, we provide a protocol for experimentally measuring and calculating individual inhibitory control capacity index in adult participants in an online Inquisit-based setting. We believe that this method can serve other researchers in the standardized assessment of individual inhibitory control capacity that can be used in studies on the possible role of inhibitory control in many every-day cognitive phenomena. Thus, the paper focuses mainly on the calculation of a composite inhibitory control capacity score from two inhibitory control tasks. Specifically, it is calculated on the basis of participants’ performance in two well-established experimental paradigms: the Stroop Task and the Eriksen Flanker Task. The methods described in this protocol have already been successfully applied in both lab and online settings. In the first part of the article, we provide a short theoretical background and a brief description of the previous usage of this method in our two original studies. In the following parts, we provide step-by-step instructions for measuring and calculating the individual inhibitory control capacity index using web-based methodology. The protocol is supplemented with slides of original experimental tasks and instructions for participants (both translated from Polish)

The relationship between parental attitudes and prospective memory in preschoolers

Analizowałam związek między postawami rodzicielskimi i pamięcią prospektywną dzieci w wieku przedszkolnym. Zakładałam, że lepszy rozwój pamięci prospektywnej u dziecka wymaga treningu, czyli tego, aby rodzic stawiał dziecku realistyczne wymagania i zadania, które ćwiczą pamiętanie o zamierzonych działaniach. W badaniu wzięło udział sześćdziesięcioro dzieci wraz z rodzicami. Pamięć prospektywną dzieci mierzono za pomocą zadań laboratoryjnych, które były dostosowane do wieku dzieci i miały formę zabawy oraz zadań naturalistycznych. Do pomiaru postaw rodziców użyto Kwestionariusza Postaw Rodzicielskich (Plopa, 2004), składającego się z pięciu podskal: skali akceptacji-odrzucenia, autonomii, nadmiernego ochraniania, nadmiernego wymagania i niekonsekwencji. Wystąpił istotny statystycznie, silny związek pomiędzy „zimnymi” postawami rodzicielskimi (nadmiernie wymagającą, nadmiernie ochraniającą, niekonsekwentną) i poziomem pamięci prospektywnej dzieci. Stwierdzono, że im bardziej rodzice przejawiali postawy „zimne”, tym gorzej rozwinięta była pamięć prospektywna ich dzieci. Związek ten był szczególnie silny w przypadku postawy ochraniającej. Na podstawie uzyskanych wyników można przypuszczać, że rodzice, którzy przejawiają postawę nadmiernie ochraniającą osłabiają rozwój pamięci prospektywnej u dzieci.Relation between parental styles and prospective memory in preschoolers was analyzed. I assumed that children, who have proper training in remembering about an intended action, will have better prospective memory. Sixty children with their parents participated in the study. Laboratory tasks for children were similar to games. Parents filled in Parental Attitudes Scale (Plopa, 2004). This questionnaire contained five subscales: acceptance-rejection, autonomy, excessive protection, excessive requirement and inconsistency. Significant relation between "cold" parental styles (excessive protection, excessive requirement and inconsistency) and level of prospective memory in children was found. The more "cold" styles parents manifested, the worse children’s prospective memory was. This relation was especially strong in case of an excessive protection style. The results suggest that parents who manifest an excessive protection style, may inhibit the development prospective memory in children

Effects of inhibitory control capacity and cognitive load on involuntary past and future thoughts : a laboratory study

The present study focused on involuntary thoughts about personal past events (i.e., involuntary autobiographical memories; IAMs), and involuntary thoughts about future events and plans (i.e., involuntary future thoughts; IFTs). The frequency of these involuntary thoughts is influenced by cognitive demands of ongoing activities, but the exact underlying mechanism(s) has yet to be revealed. The present study tested two possible explanations: (1) the special inhibitory mechanism switches on when one is engaged in attentionally demanding activities; (2) different levels of cognitive load interfere with cue-noticing that act as triggers for IAMs and IFTs. We report a study with pre-selected groups of participants that differed in terms of their individual level of inhibitory control capacity (high vs. low), and completed both standard and attentionally demanding versions of a laboratory vigilance task with irrelevant cue-words to trigger IAMs and IFTs, and random thought-probes to measure their frequency. To examine the level of incidental cue-noticing, participants also completed an unexpected cue-recognition task. Despite large differences between groups in inhibitory control capacity, the number of IFTs and IAMs, reported in the attentionally demanding condition, was comparable. In addition, high cognitive load reduced the number of IAMs, but not IFTs. Finally, the recognition of incidental cues encountered in the vigilance task was reduced under high cognitive load condition, indicating that poor cue-noticing may be the main underlying mechanism of cognitive load effect rather than the lack of inhibitory resources needed to suppress involuntary retrieval. This and other possible mechanisms and avenues for future research are discussed

Cognitive inhibition behavioral tasks in online and laboratory settings : data from Stroop, SART and Eriksen Flanker tasks

The provided dataset represents the performance of adult individuals in three experimental tasks measuring cognitive inhibition: the Stroop task; the SART task and the Eriksen Flanker task. All tasks were initially completed in a web setting (online) by 485 individuals. Additionally, randomly selected participants completed all these tasks one more time (220 participants) or two more times (100 participants) during separate laboratory session(s) offline. The provided dataset contains data both from the offline and online experimental sessions. For the Stroop and Flanker tasks, we have provided data on mean reaction times for correct answers and the percent of correct answers for both congruent and incongruent trials. For the SART task, we have provided data on the number and the percent of commission and omission errors; the mean correct reaction times in "go" trials; the standard deviations of correct reaction times in "go" trials; the coefficients of variability for correct reaction times in "go" trials; the mean reaction times for successful "go" trials proceeding successful "no-go" trials; and the mean reaction times for correct "go" trials proceeding failed "no-go" trials. Data from both laboratory sessions contains information on the age and gender of participants. Additionally, we have provided the dates and hours of all experimental sessions. This dataset can potentially be reused for exploratory research on cognitive inhibition, i.e., the stability of individual cognitive inhibition capacity over time; intercorrelations of various inhibition task performance measures; individual differences in cognitive inhibition; or the influence of task setting (web vs laboratory) on inhibition performance measured in different settings (web vs laboratory)

The role of inhibitory control and ADHD symptoms in the occurrence of involuntary thoughts about the past and future : an individual differences study

© 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. This is the accepted manuscript version of an article which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2021.103208The present study focused on involuntary thoughts about personal past events (i.e., involuntary autobiographical memories; IAMs), and involuntary thoughts about future events and plans (i.e., involuntary future thoughts; IFTs). The frequency of these involuntary thoughts is influenced by cognitive demands of ongoing activities, but the exact underlying mechanism(s) has yet to be revealed. The present study tested two possible explanations: (1) the special inhibitory mechanism switches on when one is engaged in attentionally demanding activities; (2) different levels of cognitive load interfere with cue-noticing that act as triggers for IAMs and IFTs. We report a study with pre-selected groups of participants that differed in terms of their individual level of inhibitory control capacity (high vs. low), and completed both standard and attentionally demanding versions of a laboratory vigilance task with irrelevant cue-words to trigger IAMs and IFTs, and random thought-probes to measure their frequency. To examine the level of incidental cue-noticing, participants also completed an unexpected cue-recognition task. Despite large differences between groups in inhibitory control capacity, the number of IFTs and IAMs, reported in the attentionally demanding condition, was comparable. In addition, high cognitive load reduced the number of IAMs, but not IFTs. Finally, the recognition of incidental cues encountered in the vigilance task was reduced under high cognitive load condition, indicating that poor cue-noticing may be the main underlying mechanism of cognitive load effect rather than the lack of inhibitory resources needed to suppress involuntary retrieval. This and other possible mechanisms and avenues for future research are discussed.Peer reviewe