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Response reversal and children with psychopathic tendencies: success is a function of salience of contingency change
Article first published online: 6 DEC 2004
DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2004.00398.x
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How to Cite
Budhani, S. and Blair, R.J.R. (2005), Response reversal and children with psychopathic tendencies: success is a function of salience of contingency change. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 46: 972–981. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2004.00398.x
Publication History
- Issue published online: 17 AUG 2005
- Article first published online: 6 DEC 2004
- Manuscript accepted 24 July 2004
- Abstract
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Keywords:
- ADHD;
- aggression;
- antisocial behavior;
- orbitofrontal cortex;
- psychopathy;
- response reversal
Background: Previous work has inconsistently reported difficulties with response reversal/extinction in children with psychopathic tendencies.
Method: We tested the hypothesis that the degree of impairment seen in children with psychopathic tendencies is a function of the salience of contingency change. We investigated the performance of children with psychopathic tendencies on a novel probabilistic response reversal task involving four conditions with gradated reward–punishment contingencies (100–0, 90–10, 80–20 and 70–30; i.e., for the 100–0 contingency, responding to one object is always rewarded while responding to the other is always punished).
Results: In line with predictions, the impairment seen in the children with psychopathic tendencies was an inverse function of the salience of the contingency change.
Conclusions: We suggest that this data is consistent with suggestions of subtle orbital frontal cortex impairment in children with psychopathic tendencies.