Unconscious impulsivity control maintains the ability of behavioral inhibitory control in males: Evidence of reaction‐time cost

Abstract

The present study investigated how unconscious priming of impulsivity control helps improve the performance of behavioral inhibitory control (BIC) using a Go/No-go task and a two-choice oddball task. Participants were divided into three priming conditions: impulsivity-avoiding (IA), calmness-pursuit (CP), and control group. Accuracy (ACC) cost (frequent-infrequent) in both tasks and reaction-time (RT) cost (infrequent-frequent) in the two-choice oddball task were used to assess BIC ability before and after the unconscious priming. The ACC cost, either in the Go/No-go or in the two-choice oddball task, was enhanced posttest relative to pretest, as indicated by the main effect of time. This effect arose from significantly increased ACC cost during posttest relative to pretest in the control group but not the IA and CP groups. Although no interaction of time and group was found in ACC cost analysis in either task, the analysis of RT cost in the two-choice oddball task showed a significant interaction between group and time. Specifically, the IA group showed similar RT cost during posttest versus pretest, while the RT cost was significantly enhanced during posttest versus pretest in the CP and control groups. These results suggest that unconscious pursuit of an impulsivity-avoidance goal is more effective in preventing one's impulsive behavior pattern than that of a calmness pursuit. Moreover, RT cost in the two-choice oddball task is a more sensitive index than the traditional ACC cost in assessing one's BIC function.