Forming Mental Set Reaction Time Task

The Forming Set Task emphasizes the intentional goal setting nature of frontal, executive function associated with dorsolateral regions. The dorsolateral regions contain areas of confluence that bring together the perceptual and conceptual information mediated by the posterior secondary and tertiary regions of the temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes. This task, then, requires the participant to utilize a two-stage rule that must be kept in working memory to respond quickly to a multidimensional stimulus. The stimulus can be appreciated below as consisting of a red or green dot in either the upper or lower portion of a screen. The first rule is that a red dot in the upper portion of the screen means to press the button on the opposite side (right or left) of the dot position while a green dot in the upper position means to press the same sided button. The second rule is the opposite: green dot in lower position means to push the opposite sided button and vice versa for the red dot.

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