Requests that overcome listener reluctance: impairment associated with executive dysfunction in brain injury

Fifteen subjects with suspected executive impairment following brain injury and matched controls were tested on a request production task in which they were required to produce nonconventional requests that would overcome listener reluctance. In comparison to controls, the brain-injured subjects were less likely to produce requests that addressed the obstacle to listener compliance, less likely to produce "other" kinds of strategies, and more inclined to make requests encompassing counterproductive comments. These performances were correlated with independent neuropsychological measures of executive function. It was found that disinhibition was positively correlated to the ability to specify the source of listener reluctance in the request as well as to the tendency to use other kinds of strategies. It was surmised that the association between disinhibition and other strategies may reflect the broad nature of the categories used in which marginally appropriate strategies, categorized as "other," may actually have reflected mildly disinhibited behavior.