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Where does prepotency come from on developmental tests of inhibitory control?
Andrew Simpson1, Marielle Upson1, Daniel J Carroll2
1Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester, Essex CO4 3SQ, UK.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology
|May 30, 2017
Summary
Understanding response prepotency in children
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Development
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Inhibitory control is crucial for cognitive development.
- Response prepotency influences inhibitory control.
- Preschoolers' inhibitory control is widely studied.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate factors influencing response prepotency in preschoolers.
- Compare prepotency across different inhibitory control tasks.
- Understand the mechanisms underlying response prepotency.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments involving 80 preschoolers.
- Utilized stimulus-response compatibility (SRC) tasks (e.g., Day/Night task).
- Utilized Go/No-go tasks.
Main Results:
- SRC task prepotency depends on stimulus-response association (verbal responses) or is low (action responses).
- Go/No-go tasks show high prepotency across various behaviors, irrespective of association.
- Task type significantly impacts how response prepotency emerges.
Conclusions:
- Response prepotency mechanisms differ between SRC and Go/No-go tasks.
- Both task types engage inhibitory control but through distinct processes.
- Findings clarify the role of response prepotency in cognitive development.
