An effect of inhibitory load in children while keeping working memory load constant.
An effect of inhibitory load in children while keeping working memory load constant.
复制标题
DOI：
10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00213
复制
发表时间：
2014
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
Diamond A
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Wright A;Diamond A
当正确的反应与他们最初的倾向相反时（不一致的试验），而当他们只需要做自然的事情时（一致的试验），孩子们会更慢，更容易出错。孩子们几乎总是在一个一致的试块上测试，然后在一个不一致的试块上测试。这种测试顺序使得我们无法确定，在不一致的试验中，较差的表现是由于抑制强效前反应的需要、清除工作记忆中Block 1规则的需要、其他任务切换的需求，还是这些因素的某种组合。然而，如果相同的积木块和不一致的积木块各自只有一个规则（例如，在相同的测试中，“按在刺激的同一侧”，在不一致的测试中，如在红心和花朵任务中，“按在刺激的对面”），并且儿童在第一次呈现不一致的积木块时的表现与在第二次呈现不一致积木块时的表现完全相当，他们在不一致试验中比在一致试验中表现更差的唯一可能的解释似乎是在不一致试验中增加了抑制需求。当然，Block 1上较差的性能不是由于无效的工作内存清除或任务切换需求。我们对96名6-10岁的儿童（49名女孩）进行了心形和花朵的测试，并在儿童之间平衡了一致和不一致积木的顺序。无论任务顺序如何，孩子们在不一致的实验中表现得更慢，犯了更多的错误。我们期望任务转换需求能够解释一些差异，但令我们惊讶的是，在不一致块上的表现是完全可比的，无论它是第一还是第二。这些结果表明，在工作记忆需求不变的情况下，仅增加抑制需求就足以损害儿童的表现，表明抑制是一个独立于工作记忆的心理功能。
Children are slower and more error-prone when the correct response is counter to their initial inclination (incongruent trials) than when they just need to do what comes naturally (congruent trials). Children are almost always tested on a congruent-trial block and then on an incongruent-trial block. That order of testing makes it impossible to determine whether worse performance on incongruent trials is due to the need to inhibit a pre-potent response, the need to clear the rule for Block 1 from working memory, some other demand of task-switching, or some combination of these. However, if the congruent block and incongruent blocks each have only one rule (e.g., “press on the same side as the stimulus” for congruent trials and “press on the side opposite the stimulus” for incongruent trials, as on the hearts and flowers task) and children’s performance when the incongruent block is presented first is fully comparable to their performance when it is presented second, the only possible explanation for their worse performance on incongruent versus congruent trials would seem to be the added inhibitory demand on incongruent trials. Certainly, worse performance on Block 1 would not be due to inefficient clearing of working memory or task-switching demands. We tested 96 children (49 girls) 6–10 years of age on the hearts and flowers test with order of congruent and incongruent blocks counterbalanced across children. Children were slower and made more errors on incongruent trials regardless of task order. We expected task-switching demands to account for some of the variance, but to our surprise, performance was fully comparable on the incongruent block whether it came first or second. These results indicate that increasing inhibitory demands alone is sufficient to impair children’s performance in the face of no change in working memory demands, suggesting that inhibition is a separate mental function from working memory.