Perseveration Tendencies Research Articles

Enhancing the Psychometric Properties of the Iowa Gambling Task Using Full Generative Modeling.

Poor psychometrics, particularly low test-retest reliability, pose a major challenge for using behavioral tasks in individual differences research. Here, we demonstrate that full generative modeling of the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) substantially improves test-retest reliability and may also enhance the IGT's validity for use in characterizing internalizing pathology, compared to the traditional analytic approach. IGT data was collected across two sessions, one month apart. Our full generative model incorporated (1) the Outcome Representation Learning (ORL) computational model at the person-level and (2) a group-level model that explicitly modeled test-retest reliability, along with other group-level effects. Compared to the traditional 'summary score' (proportion good decks selected), the ORL model provides a theoretically rich set of performance metrics (Reward Learning Rate , Punishment Learning Rate , Win Frequency Sensitivity , Perseveration Tendency , Memory Decay ), capturing distinct psychological processes. While test-retest reliability for the traditional summary score was only moderate (, BCa 95% CI [.04, .63]), test-retest reliabilities for ORL performance metrics produced by the full generative model were substantially improved, with test-retest correlations ranging between for the five ORL parameters. Further, while summary scores showed no substantial associations with internalizing symptoms, ORL parameters were significantly associated with internalizing symptoms. Specifically, Punishment Learning Rate was associated with higher self-reported depression and Perseveration Tendency was associated with lower self-reported anhedonia. Generative modeling offers promise for advancing individual differences research using the IGT, and behavioral tasks more generally, through enhancing task psychometrics.

Alcohol Hangover Does Not Alter the Application of Model-Based and Model-Free Learning Strategies

Frequent alcohol binges shift behavior from goal-directed to habitual processing modes. This shift in reward-associated learning strategies plays a key role in the development and maintenance of alcohol use disorders and seems to persist during (early stages of) sobriety in at-risk drinkers. Yet still, it has remained unclear whether this phenomenon might be associated with alcohol hangover and thus also be found in social drinkers. In an experimental crossover design, n = 25 healthy young male participants performed a two-step decision-making task once sober and once hungover (i.e., when reaching sobriety after consuming 2.6 g of alcohol per estimated liter of total body water). This task allows the separation of effortful model-based and computationally less demanding model-free learning strategies. The experimental induction of alcohol hangover was successful, but we found no significant hangover effects on model-based and model-free learning scores, the balance between model-free and model-based valuation (ω), or perseveration tendencies (π). Bayesian analyses provided positive evidence for the null hypothesis for all measures except π (anecdotal evidence for the null hypothesis). Taken together, alcohol hangover, which results from a single binge drinking episode, does not impair the application of effortful and computationally costly model-based learning strategies and/or increase model-free learning strategies. This supports the notion that the behavioral deficits observed in at-risk drinkers are most likely not caused by the immediate aftereffects of individual binge drinking events.

Dissociation of nicotinic α7 and α4/β2 sub-receptor agonists for enhancing learning and attentional filtering in nonhuman primates.

Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) modulate attention, memory, and higher executive functioning, but it is unclear how nACh sub-receptors mediate different mechanisms supporting these functions. We investigated whether selective agonists for the alpha-7 nAChR versus the alpha-4/beta-2 nAChR have unique functional contributions for value learning and attentional filtering of distractors in the nonhuman primate. Two adult rhesus macaque monkeys performed reversal learning following systemic administration of either the alpha-7 nAChR agonist PHA-543613 or the alpha-4/beta-2 nAChR agonist ABT-089 or a vehicle control. Behavioral analysis quantified performance accuracy, speed of processing, reversal learning speed, the control of distractor interference, perseveration tendencies, and motivation. We found that the alpha-7 nAChR agonist PHA-543613 enhanced the learning speed of feature values but did not modulate how salient distracting information was filtered from ongoing choice processes. In contrast, the selective alpha-4/beta-2 nAChR agonist ABT-089 did not affect learning speed but reduced distractibility. This dissociation was dose-dependent and evident in the absence of systematic changes in overall performance, reward intake, motivation to perform the task, perseveration tendencies, or reaction times. These results suggest nicotinic sub-receptor specific mechanisms consistent with (1) alpha-4/beta-2 nAChR specific amplification of cholinergic transients in prefrontal cortex linked to enhanced cue detection in light of interferences, and (2) alpha-7 nAChR specific activation prolonging cholinergic transients, which could facilitate subjects to follow-through with newly established attentional strategies when outcome contingencies change. These insights will be critical for developing function-specific drugs alleviating attention and learning deficits in neuro-psychiatric diseases.

The Rorschach Coping Deficit Index as an Indicator of Neurocognitive Dysfunction

Abstract. Despite a conceptual link between the Rorschach Coping Deficit Index (CDI) and a loss of cognitive and functional capacity, no published study has explored whether or how the CDI relates to these characteristics as measured by other neuropsychological test instruments. We examined the relationship between the CDI and neurocognitive abilities of language skills, perceptual organization, memory, and executive functioning separately in adolescent psychiatric inpatients (n = 267), as well as in adults with first episode schizophrenia or severe affective disorder (n = 117), and healthy adults (n = 94). We found a significant link between the CDI and limited cognitive capacity. Impaired comprehension predicted the elevated CDI in adolescents whereas perseveration tendency and impaired delayed memory in adult patients and impaired memory functions in healthy people predicted the elevated CDI. The CDI seems to include neurocognitive aspects, and may reflect persistent deterioration associated with neurocognitive dysfunction.

Neuropsychological Characteristics of Highly Dissociative Healthy Individuals

ABSTRACT Objective: Dissociative disorders are characterized by disturbances in several neuropsychological domains, especially attention, memory, and consciousness. As a tendency to dissociate can also be observed in healthy individuals, and may be a risk factor for the development of dissociative disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), we were interested in the neuropsychological characteristics of these participants. Method: We examined attention, memory, and executive control functions in 17 high and 17 low dissociators without any psychiatric or neurological disorder and without prior experiences of trauma. Results: High dissociators showed relative performance deficiencies in tasks of memory for associative, context-dependent verbal material, visuospatial working memory, and executive control functions in terms of a heightened perseveration tendency and false positive errors. Conclusion: These cognitive deficits are consistent with models of dissociative disorders and dissociation in PTSD assuming a hippocampal and prefrontal dysfunction as a core factor. Mild cognitive impairments in otherwise healthy high dissociators may constitute a risk factor for the development of later PTSD or dissociative disorders.

Ergopsychometry in depressive patients

Thirteen patients with major depressive disorder, 25 patients with dysthymia and 12 healthy controls underwent ergopsychometric testing. The effect of self-paced and set-paced load on mood, vigilance and perseveration tendency was recorded. Within the clinical groups, various types of load seemed to result mainly in variations in mood. Dysthymics reacted to monotonous load with a deterioration in mood and reacted to load under time pressure with an improvement in mood. Patients with major depressive disorder displayed an amelioration in mood throughout the whole experiment regardless of which particular stressor was being employed. In healthy patients, load did not appear to produce any significant change in mood.

Acute and chronic amphetamine treatment: Differential modification of exploratory behavior in a radial maze

Mice permitted to explore an 8-arm radial maze displayed high levels of spontaneous alternation as measured by the frequency of visiting (a) the 4 least recently entered arms, (b) the 2 least recently visited arms, and (c) sequences of arms which are adjacent to one another. Acute treatment with low doses of amphetamine (1.0 mg/kg) eliminated the alternation tendency. Higher doses (5.0–7.0 mg/kg) also produced marked stimulus perseveration, such that mice tended to revisit the two arms that had been most recently entered. With repeated amphetamine treatment the perseveration tendency was attenuated. The abatement of perseveration in the radial maze did not appear to reflect simply the reduction in the potency of the drug. That is, the reduction of perseveration after chronic exposure to amphetamine was not accompanied by recovery of normal exploratory patterns. In fact, the alternation and adjacent alternation patterns typical of naive animals were absent in mice chronically treated with amphetamine even when tested in the nondrug state. It was suggested that the attenuation of amphetamine induced perseveration after chronic amphetamine administration may reflect a breakdown of normal behavior patterns rather than the development of a genuine tolerance.

Sequential response bias in randomized response sequences: A computer simulation

In this study sequential bias in randomized response sequences is simulated by computer. The computer model assumes that response bias is composed of two components. The first is a repetition avoidance tendency, which is simulated by a memory search through the seven most recently produced responses, and the second is a repetition tendency for the two most recently produced responses. This repetition tendency is assumed to be related to the better availability of recently produced responses. Both processes together give a reasonable approximation of human subjects' data. The results can be explained by the assumption that subjects try to control perseveration tendencies by using a comparison-based memory search mechanism.

Frontal lesions and the rate of operant behavior in the rat

Results previously obtained by the method of electrical stimulation indicate that the frontal pole and adjacent cortex of the rat can have an inhibitory influence on the rate of barpressing for food. The effects of bilateral lesions in this cortical area of the rat on the rate of barpressing were investigated. When lesioned rats were hungry, neither their rate of barpressing for food nor their rate of responding during extinction was increased as compared with control rats. When lesioned rats were allowed ad-lib feeding in the home cage, the rate of barpressing for food was also not increased, but the rate of responding during extinction was increased. Stabilimeter activity of these rats was increased when they were hungry, but not when they were allowed ad-lib feeding in the home cage. It is concluded that these frontally lesioned rats displayed a perseveration tendency in their operant behavior, but that this tendency was counteracted by the effects of increased general activity when they were hungry.

Spontaneous alternation disturbance after lesions of the ventral mesencephalic tegmentum in the rat

Radiofrequency lesions of the ventral mesencephalic tegmentum (VMT), a region located above the nucleus interpeduncularis, provoked a disappearance of the spontaneous alternation behavior. The lesioned rats scores (44%) are not different from the chance level, while the alternation rate amounts to 77% in the control group. This disturbance cannot be explained by differences in the locomotor activity and choice latencies, nor by perseveration tendencies. The effects of VMT lesions appear to be of the same nature as those induced by limbic forebrain lesions. Anatomical connections between the VMT and the limbic system can explain these similarities.

Effects of scopolamine on spontaneous alternation following free and forced trials

Spontaneous alternation of rats following free trials was significantly reduced with doses of scopolamine of 1.2 mg/kg or higher. At no dose level was significant response perseveration found. Both controls and scopolamine-injected rats alternated 100 per cent of their free trials after either 1, 3 or 5 forced trials. Scopolamine-injected rats alternated significantly more when the choices were visually discriminable than when they were similar. The reduction of alternation following free trials produced by scopolamine cannot be explained solely in terms of deficits in habituation or by response perseveration tendencies. The deficit produced by scopolamine, and its interpretation, are related to the stimulus properties of the test situation.

Response tendencies of children in a two-choice situation

Two groups of children, ranging in age from 3 years to 3 years and 9 months and from 4 years and 3 months to 5 years, were run in a simple 2-choice situation with undiscriminable stimuli and 100%, 50%, and 33% reinforcement regardless of their response. Under 100% reinforcement all but one of the 4 1 2 - year-old group showed very strong alternation behavior whereas the largest alternation score for the 3-year-old group was 4 alternations in 60 trials. An additional group of Ss, ranging in age from 3 years and 10 months to 4 years and 3 months, who were given 100% reinforcement, did not respond randomly but could be clearly classified as showing either alternation or perseveration tendencies. Under 50 and 33% reinforcement the 4-year-old Ss did not consistently alternate or perseverate with a single response. Although the effect of lowered reinforcement on the 3-year-old group was toward less consistent perseveration, the mean number of alternations remained below chance under both 50 and 33% reinforcement conditions.

Spatial reversal deficit in monkeys with amygdalohippocampal ablations

Delayed-response, delayed-alternation and spatial reversal performance of monkeys with amygdalohippocampal resections was compared to that of monkeys with inferior and lateral temporal resections and to that of unoperated control animals. Medial temporal lobe resections resulted in an impairment on delayed alternation but not on delayed response. This deficit was found to be related to a severe deficit in spatial reversal learning. Both results were interpreted in terms of a response perseveration tendency.

The aetiology of schizophrenia in childhood.

The aetiology and significance of schizophrenia in childhood is still so obscure that it is profitable to analyse fully every case that is diagnosed. In the United States of America, where cases appear to occur more frequently, the picture of full-blown childhood schizophrenia has been well drawn by Bender, Kanner, Szurek and others, but the descriptions are more of the whole forest and the details of the individual tree are missed in the whole. Excellent individual studies certainly are made, but the significance is often not understood, as if the workers were more used to macroscopic than to microscopic studies, but an unforgettable demonstration of the gross pathology and clinical picture of childhood schizophrenia is given at the Langley Porter Clinic in San Francisco. The over-all impression is one of emotional fixation at the infant to toddler level. In a variety of cases all stages may be shown from the oral to the anal level of erotism, from the delight and practice of bodily movements at rest and in space, to the experiments and flights in fantasy of the later period. Play is also at the toddler or earlier level—one child of ten years came offering everyone cups of imaginary coffee to drink—and there is the same lack of team spirit, the same failure to make groups of more than two for any length of time, the same mischievous exploratory tendency, the same perseveration tendency with any trick, the same range of comfort mechanisms from thumb-sucking to rocking and masturbation, the same range of speech from babble to sentences as is found in any nursery and nursery school, although the chronological age-range may be five to fifteen years instead of six months to five years.