Performance of university students on random number generation at different rates to evaluate executive functions

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the performance of adult young subjects in a Random Number Generation (RNG) task by controlling the response speed (RS). METHOD: Sixty-nine university students of both sexes took part in the experiment (25.05 ± 6.71 year-old). Participants were alloted into 3 groups which differed in RS rates to generate numbers: 1, 2 and 4 seconds to generate each number. A digital metronomer was used to control RS. Participants were asked to generate 100 numbers. The responses were mensured through Evans's RNG Index. RESULTS: There were statistically significant differences among the groups [F (3, 68) = 7.120; p < .05]. Differences were localized between 1 and 2 seconds (p = 0.004) and between 1 and 4 seconds (p = 0.006). No differences were observed between 2 and 4 seconds (p = 0.985). CONCLUSION: The present results suggest that the response speed in production of random numbers influences the performance of the Random Numbers Generation task.

Relações entre controle executivo e memória episódica verbal no comprometimento cognitivo leve e na demência tipo Alzheimer

“…Instrumentos para avaliação do Controle Executivo: Random Number Generation (RNG): consiste em solicitar ao participante que fale em voz alta, aleatoriamente, números de 01 a 10. A pontuação é dada pelo índice de Evans (Hamdan, Bueno, & Souza, 2004). Trail Making Test (TMT): na forma A apresentam-se ao sujeito círculos com números de 1 a 25, impressos numa folha, que devem ser ligados em ordem crescente.…”

A computer program for testing and analyzing random generation behavior in normal and clinical samples: The Mittenecker Pointing Test

“…The analysis of self-selected response rates is an alternative way to describe the relationship between production rate and random generation performance, which has been reported using random number or letter generation tasks (Baddeley et al, 1998;Hamdan, de Souza, & Bueno, 2004;Jahanshahi, Saleem, Ho, Dirnberger, & Fuller, 2006). If a study is not aimed at investigating the effects of different response rates, the production rate must be controlled by a pacing signal in order for individual differences in the randomization measures to be interpretable.…”

Cognitive Processing dissociation by mental effort manipulation in long demanding tasks

“…Random number generation task -In this task, the participant was instructed to generate numbers between 1 and 9 randomly, avoiding the generation of predefined sequences (such as 3, 4, 5 or 9, 8, 7) (Schulz et al 2012). This task requires the maintenance of several instructions and an understanding of the concept of randomness; integration of this information and its concomitant maintenance in working memory; adoption of strategies involving the selection of appropriate responses and inhibition of inappropriate responses; the monitoring of responses; and modification or alternation of the strategies employed, to maintain the randomness required by the task (Hamdan et al 2004;Jahanshahi et al 2006).…”

“…The relationship between pupil dilation and mental activity may be related to activity of noradrenergic neurons rising in the locus coeruleus (Jepma et al 2011;Joshi et al 2016;Murphy et al 2014), implying the relationship between noradrenergic locus coeruleus neuronal activity in top-down attentional processes (Corbetta and Shulman, 2002), and consequently the LC-NE system -important for task engagement and performance (Aston-Jones and Cohen 2005) -may be related to different cognitive load and mental effort levels (Gratton, 2018;Oliva 2019). With this, the LC-NE system would be essential to "turn on" the cognitive system to ensure appropriate levels of activation for cognitive performance (Alnaes et al 2014;Berridge and Waterhouse 2003;Kihara et al 2015).…”

“…In the present study, we used the random number generation (RNG) task as the controlled system task because it is complex and requires a high level of attentional resources (Dirnberger and Jahanshashi 2010;Jahanshashi et al 2006;Neuringer 1986), given that the RNG task demands control processing to randomize numbers (Towse and Neil, 1998). The RNG task may be applied with different levels of difficulty depending on the response rate required, reducing or augmenting the demand of mental resources of individuals (Dirnberger and Jahanshashi, 2010;Hamdan et al 2004;Jahanshashi et al 2006).…”