Reliability and plasticity of response inhibition and interference control

• Published in: Brain and cognition Vol. 81; no. 1; pp. 82 - 94
• Main Authors: Wöstmann, Nicola M., Aichert, Désirée S., Costa, Anna, Rubia, Katya, Möller, Hans-Jürgen, Ettinger, Ulrich
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier Inc 01.02.2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Cognition. Intelligence; Correlation; Executive function; Eye movements; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Inhibition; Inhibition (Psychology); Interference control; Longitudinal Studies - methods; Male; Measurement Techniques; Middle Aged; Miscellaneous; Neuronal Plasticity; Performance Tests; Practice; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reaction Time; Reliability; Reproducibility of Results; Response inhibition; Responses; Task Performance and Analysis; Test Reliability; Young Adult; Practice; Response inhibition; Executive function; Interference control; Eye movements; Reliability; Human; Interference; Cognition; Experimental study; Eye movement; Plasticity; Inhibition; Cognitive control
• ISSN: 0278-2626; 1090-2147; 1090-2147
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2012.09.010

► We examine test-retest-reliability, internal consistency and plasticity of tasks measuring inhibition-related functions. ► Most measures yield good test-retest-reliability and internal consistencies. ► No systematic within- and between-session changes are present. ► Therefore these measures are able to represent inhibition-related traits. ► Results are relevant for pathophysiological, genetic and pharmacological research. This study investigated the internal reliability, temporal stability and plasticity of commonly used measures of inhibition-related functions. Stop-signal, go/no-go, antisaccade, Simon, Eriksen flanker, Stroop and Continuous Performance tasks were administered twice to 23 healthy participants over a period of approximately 11weeks in order to assess test–retest correlations, internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha), and systematic between as well as within session performance changes. Most of the inhibition-related measures showed good test–retest reliabilities and internal consistencies, with the exception of the stop-signal reaction time measure, which showed poor reliability. Generally no systematic performance changes were observed across the two assessments with the exception of four variables of the Eriksen flanker, Simon and Stroop task which showed reduced variability of reaction time and an improvement in the response time for incongruent trials at second assessment. Predominantly stable performance within one test session was shown for most measures. Overall, these results are informative for studies with designs requiring temporally stable parameters e.g. genetic or longitudinal treatment studies.