Executive Functions: Response Inhibition - Revised Version (HIBIT R) Module

Setting and Task

The HIBIT-R training program fosters the ability to suppress unwanted reactions (Response Inhibition).For this, the training program primarily works with Stop Signal and Go/No-go tasks. The client assumes the role of a post-office employee who must sort letters and packages as quickly and accurately as possible. There are four different jobs (kinds of tasks) in which the client is asked to pay attention to specific features (i.e. whether or not there is a stamp) that indicate when he should react and when he is not supposed to react. In the HIBIT-R training program, the client is able to co-design their own course of training: After successful completion of a task, the client can decide whether he would like to continue the current task or switch to a different job. Thus, he can choose between tasks himself and can design the program execution individually motivating.

Theory

In everyday life the ability to suppress unwanted reactions is an important component of the ability to act flexibly and appropriately. If environmental conditions change, practiced reaction patterns are often dysfunctional and must be suppressed, so that new behavior appropriate to the situation is possible. Deficits of response inhibition are reported:

• In diseases characterized by impairment of impulse control (e.g. ADHD, borderline personality disorder, dependency disorders)
• In diseases characterized by rigid and inflexible behavior (schizophrenia, compulsive disorders)
• In various neurological diseases (Parkinson's disease, dementia of the Alzheimer's type)

Difficulty Structure

The difficulty levels of HIBIT-R vary systematically in the demands they make on response inhibition. The inhibition of responses is made more difficult across the difficulty levels by a reduction in the number of no-go stimuli, shorter presentation time of the letters and packages and an increasing number of discriminators (several stamps, additional inscriptions on a package).