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. 2015 Apr:76:68-74.
doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2014.11.059.

Further evidence of the heterogeneous nature of impulsivity

Amy J Caswell  1 , Rod Bond  2 , Theodora Duka  3 , Michael J Morgan  4
Affiliations

Further evidence of the heterogeneous nature of impulsivity

Amy J Caswell et al. Pers Individ Dif. 2015 Apr.

Abstract

'Impulsivity' refers to a range of behaviours including preference for immediate reward (temporal-impulsivity) and the tendency to make premature decisions (reflection-impulsivity) and responses (motor-impulsivity). The current study aimed to examine how different behavioural and self-report measurements of impulsivity can be categorised into distinct subtypes. Exploratory factor analysis using full information maximum likelihood was conducted on 10 behavioural and 1 self-report measure of impulsivity. Four factors of impulsivity were indicated, with Factor 1 having a high loading of the Stop Signal Task, which measures motor-impulsivity, factor 2 representing reflection-impulsivity with loadings of the Information Sampling Task and Matching Familiar Figures Task, factor 3 representing the Immediate Memory Task, and finally factor 4 which represents the Delay Discounting Questionnaire and The Monetary Choice Questionnaire, measurements of temporal-impulsivity. These findings indicated that impulsivity is not a unitary construct, and instead represents a series of independent subtypes. There was evidence of a distinct reflection-impulsivity factor, providing the first factor analysis support for this subtype. There was also support for additional factors of motor- and temporal-impulsivity. The present findings indicated that a number of currently accepted tasks cannot be considered as indexing motor- and temporal-impulsivity suggesting that additional characterisations of impulsivity may be required.

Keywords: BIS-11, Barratt Impulsiveness Scale; DDT, Delay Discounting Task; Factor analysis; GNG, Go/NoGo Task; Human; IMT, Immediate Memory Task; ISTfw, Information Sampling Task (fixed win condition); ISTrc, Information Sampling Task (reward conflict condition); Impulsivity; Inhibitory control; Laboratory measures; MCQ, Monetary Choice Questionnaire; MFF20, Matching Familiar Figures Task; MI, motor-impulsivity; Motor impulsivity; RI, reflection-impulsivity; Reflection impulsivity; SKIP, Single Key Impulsivity Paradigm; SST, Stop Signal Task; TCIP, Two Choice Impulsivity Paradigm; TI, temporal-impulsivity; Temporal impulsivity.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Scree plot indicating number of factors for extraction in the analysis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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