Inhibizio Latentearen urritasuna: gaitasun eza ala trebetasuna? Deficit of latent inhibition: deficiency or ability?

Abstract

Latent inhibition (LI) is considered a phenomenon that reflects the ability of organisms to learn to stop paying attention to irrelevant stimuli [1]. Under this consideration, individual differences in the expression of LI can be interpreted as a marker for certain attention-related traits. For example, it has been proposed that a tendency to show reduced LI may indicate a difficulty in filtering out irrelevant information. In this article we discuss features of the so-called shared vulnerability model [3,4], which explains how reduced LI can be a cognitive marker of both deficient cognitive functioning and highly efficient cognitive functioning. Reduced information filtering will cause a particularly large volume of information to access the processing resources of the system. According to the model, if this reduced filtering is not accompanied by additional cognitive strengths, it will result in a deficit in attention to relevant stimuli because processing resources will be committed to irrelevant stimuli. In these cases, reduced LI will be related to a vulnerability to psychopathology. In contrast, if reduced filtering occurs in a system with additional cognitive strengths, the large volume of information passing the filter will be manageable. In this case, it will be possible to establish remote associations between pieces of information whose relationship is not obvious or frequent. Here, then, reduced LI will relate to highly efficient creative thinking in problem solving.