Platform Agnostic Version of the 4-Choice Reversal Learning Task

Abstract

Impairments in cognitive flexibility (CF) are thought to drive too much of the disability seen in several neuropsychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia and substance abuse disorder. Reversal learning tasks (RLT) are commonly utilized as research tools to evaluate CF and are also a valuable means for remediative therapy in psychiatric cases4. These cognitive tasks assess the participant's ability to change previously acquired behavioral strategies in response to changes in reinforcement. Given the importance of CF, there is a need to develop effective tools that can reliably assess and engage this cognitive domain. To this end, we have developed a variant of the RLT that is written in a state of the art, multi-platform gaming engine.