French Kristin, Beran Michael J, Espy Kimberly Andrews, Washburn David A
Department of Psychology and Language Research Center, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 5010, Atlanta, GA, 30302-5010, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.
Learn Behav. 2018 Sep;46(3):281-293. doi: 10.3758/s13420-017-0310-1.
Executive functions (EF) have been studied extensively in children and adults. However, EF tasks for young children can be difficult to administer and interpret. Espy (1997, Developmental Neuropsychology, 13, 495-499) designed the Shape School task to measure inhibition and switching in preschool-aged children. Shape School presents cartoon-like characters that children must flexibly name by their color, their shape, or both, depending on cues that indicate the appropriate rule. Shape School has been found to be age sensitive as well as predictive of performance on other EF tasks. We presented a computerized analogue of Shape School to seven rhesus macaques. Monkeys were trained to categorize characters by color or shape, or to inhibit this response, depending on whether the characters had eyes open, eyes closed, or wore hats. Monkeys performed above chance on the inhibition and switching components of the task. Long runs of a single classification rule and long runs of noninhibition trials had no significant impact on performance when the rule changed or inhibition was required. This nonverbal adaptation of Shape School can measure EF in nonhuman animals and could be used in conjunction with other EF tasks to provide a clearer picture of both human and nonhuman executive functions.
执行功能（EF）在儿童和成人中已得到广泛研究。然而，针对幼儿的执行功能任务可能难以实施和解释。埃斯皮（1997年，《发展神经心理学》，第13卷，第495 - 499页）设计了形状学校任务来测量学龄前儿童的抑制和转换能力。形状学校呈现出卡通形象，孩子们必须根据表明适当规则的线索，灵活地按颜色、形状或两者来为其命名。已发现形状学校任务对年龄敏感，并且能够预测在其他执行功能任务中的表现。我们向七只恒河猴展示了形状学校任务的计算机模拟版本。猴子们接受训练，根据形象是眼睛睁开、眼睛闭上还是戴着帽子，按颜色或形状对形象进行分类，或者抑制这种反应。猴子们在任务的抑制和转换部分的表现高于随机水平。当规则改变或需要抑制时，长时间执行单一分类规则和长时间进行非抑制试验对表现没有显著影响。形状学校任务的这种非语言改编版本可以测量非人类动物的执行功能，并可与其他执行功能任务结合使用，以更清晰地了解人类和非人类的执行功能。
