The effects of impulsivity and instruction set on speed–accuracy trade-offs
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1
Chung-Ang University, Republic of Korea
Impulsivity is regarded as a personality or temperament facet reflecting a general tendency to respond to stimuli quickly and without thoughtful deliberation (Clonniger, Svrakic & Przybeck, 1993). Impulsive individuals tend to respond faster (Zelniker & Jeffrey, 1976) but to make more errors (Dickman, 1985) because they respond without thought or plan, a relationship that is known as the speed–accuracy trade-off. In addition to impulsive personality traits or temperament, the speed–accuracy trade-off can also be illustrated by task instructions that emphasize either speed over accuracy or accuracy over speed (Plamondon & Alimi, 1997). Considering both personality and task instructions, it may be that, relative to nonimpulsive individuals, highly impulsive people may respond even more quickly to instructions that emphasize speed because the instructions are consistent with their quick response style. Similarly, highly impulsive people may be less accurate than nonimpulsive people when accuracy is emphasized. This study examines the indices of erroneous performance among impulsive individuals. The speed–accuracy trade-off can be examined not only in terms of speed and accuracy of performance but also via perception and cognition of stimulus input and output. To test this idea, we use the attention network test (ANT), which is based on Posner and Petersen’s (1990) model of attentional functions and tests three areas of attentional efficiency: alerting, orienting, and executive attention (Fan, Bruce, McCandliss, Sommer, Raz & Posner, 2002). Twenty-seven undergraduate participants were screened with a Korean version of the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale, version 11 (Lee, 1992). They were classified into low- and high-impulsivity groups according to their impulsivity scores. The ANT, which is a combination of the cued reaction time (Posner, 1980) and the flanker tasks (Eriksen & Eriksen, 1974), was presented via the SuperLab program for Microsoft Windows. The ANT requires participants to determine whether a central arrow points left or right. An experimental session consisted of a practice block and three experimental blocks. There were three instruction sets, one for accuracy, one for speed, and one that emphasized both. Between blocks, participants were instructed to respond accurately, quickly, or accurately and quickly in a random order. The result for the speed-emphasis instruction set showed significant differences in reaction time (t=1.94, p<.05) and error rate (t=–2.40, p<.05) between groups. Also, for the speed-emphasis instruction, there were significant differences between groups in executive attention (t=1.98, p<.05), suggesting that the high-impulsivity group spent less time searching for the stimulus than the low-impulsivity group. The indices of erroneous performance were calculated as the ratios of the standardized scores of reaction time and erroneous responses. The high-impulsivity group had a higher error rate than the low-impulsivity group. For the speed-emphasis instruction, there were significant differences between groups (t=–2.40, p<.05). The speed–accuracy trade-off is calculated by adding the standardized reaction time scores to an accuracy rate, and there were significant differences between groups in speed-emphasis instruction (t=2.70, p<.05). The high-impulsivity group reacted faster but more inaccurately than the low-impulsivity group, suggesting a greater speed–accuracy trade-off. In the current study, we can confirm that those with high level of impulsivity have difficulties in efficient performance when speed is emphasized. Acknowledgement: This work was supported by The Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by Korea Government (MOEHRD) (KRF-2006-332-H00021)
Conference:
10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience, Bodrum, Türkiye, 1 Sep - 5 Sep, 2008.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Decision Making and Response Selection
Citation:
Kim
M and
Lee
J
(2008). The effects of impulsivity and instruction set on speed–accuracy trade-offs.
Conference Abstract:
10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience.
doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.01.198
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Received:
08 Dec 2008;
Published Online:
08 Dec 2008.
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Correspondence:
Min Kyung Kim, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea, agthorn@hotmail.com