User:Amerenda95/sandbox

Backward Inhibition

In experimental psychology, backward inhibition is a theory of sequential task control that asserts switching between tasks requires the just-completed task to be suppressed to allow a new task to be completed. Support from the theory comes from research which has observed larger response times when returning to a task after an intermediate task than when completing three, or more, different tasks in a row.

For example, for tasks A, B, and C, the response times for the third task will be slower in the case of an A-B-A sequence than a C-B-A sequence. In a series of experiments, it was shown that this inhibitory process is not the result of priming (Mayr & Keele, 2000).

Backward Inhibition and Rumination There is evidence to suggest that individuals who commonly ruminate have difficulty with backward inhibition. In a study conducted at Stanford University, Whitmer and Gotlib tested the "role of rumination" in backward inhibition and specifically in major depressive disorders. With a large control group and a large experimental group, they found that the rate at which someone switches from one task to another has little to do with depression and more to do with rumination. This suggests that rumination somehow prevents backward inhibition from taking place. (http://web.stanford.edu/group/mood/cgi-bin/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/whitmer_gotlib_jap_2012.pdf)

Backward Inhibition in Hearing Backward inhibition seems to exist but not as clearly as it does in vision. When the stimulus is presented in a non-acoustic room, it takes only about 60 milliseconds between sounds for backward inhibition to take place. When place in a room that reverberates, there seems to be a muffling of the previous sound into the current sound; there is not a clear distinction between the sounds as there is in vision. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1730936?casa_token=8zHXxz_gSjgAAAAA:JXCy9BOdOVfp735QxGBe2tV1oWUvSgW_EBD6mbSH5FsY0uq-LlIP8LuVZFhMTCr6_WrJY95BRFY1VBcwPu1fDDMZCEi7LoOTaS3pq0I-dQw0aaWi3sY&seq=4#metadata_info_tab_contents)

Backward Inhibition in Vision Backward inhibition in vision is a little more difficult to detect. A study done by Georg von Bekesy shows that it requires certain elements for an image to be completely inhibited when another image appears. They found that in some cases an image that is first shown overlays another image that follows. If an image is flashed 120 milliseconds or more after the first image was shown then the first image is completely inhibited. However, if the second image was flashed less than 120 milliseconds after the first image than those two images tend to be perceived together. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/1730936?casa_token=8zHXxz_gSjgAAAAA:JXCy9BOdOVfp735QxGBe2tV1oWUvSgW_EBD6mbSH5FsY0uq-LlIP8LuVZFhMTCr6_WrJY95BRFY1VBcwPu1fDDMZCEi7LoOTaS3pq0I-dQw0aaWi3sY&seq=4#metadata_info_tab_contents)

Backward Inhibition to reduce task competition It has also been found that backward inhibition of mental processes can be activated when simply preparing for an alternate stimulus. In a study done by Mike Hubner and others, they found that having a goal for information of the latter task activates backward inhibition. Contrary to other research, they also found that backward inhibition did not occur as easily when a new task was presented unsuspectingly. (http://medienpsychologie.hf.uni-koeln.de/data/fgpsych/File/Haider/Huebner_etal_2003.pdf)