Associations between personality traits, inhibition, cognitive flexibility and working memory

V zadnjem desetletju se je med raziskovalci povečalo zanimanje za preučevanje odnosa med osebnostjo in izvršilnimi funkcijami ter načinom, kako sta konstrukta med seboj povezana. Kljub naraščajočemu številu avtorjev, ki so to povezavo raziskovali, pa so ugotovitve raziskav precej nekonsistentne ter kontradiktorne. V naši raziskavi smo se osredotočili na povezanost velikih petih faktorjev osebnosti s kognitivno fleksibilnostjo, delovnim spominom in inhibicijo. V raziskavi je sodelovalo 321 udeležencev (od tega 109 moških), starih med 8 in 86 let. V raziskavi je bil uporabljen test besednega delovnega spomina, ki je sestavljen iz štirih različic spominskega razpona. Naloga udeležencev je bila, da so si zapomnili nize informacij in jih po krajšem zamiku obnovili. Za merjenje kognitivne fleksibilnosti je bila uporabljena računalniška različica preizkušnje prožnega preklapljanja, v kateri so morali udeleženci presoditi, če je določen dražljaj, ki je bil sestavljen iz kombinacije črk in številk, ustrezal podanim pravilom. Mera inhibicije je bila izmerjena z računalniško različico Stroopove naloge, v kateri so se morali udeleženci odzivati na prikazane skladne in neskladne dražljaje. Za merjenje inhibicije smo uporabili tri različne mere, vezane na tri dele Stroopove naloge, saj smo želeli preveriti, ali se različni načini med seboj razlikujejo. Aplicirali smo tudi Vprašalnik velikih pet. Rezultati so pokazali, da se je dimenzija odprtosti pozitivno povezovala z besednim delovnim spominom, kognitivno fleksibilnostjo ter mero inhibicije izračunano v drugem delu Stroopove naloge. Vestnost se je negativno povezovala s sposobnostjo inhibicije, izračunano v prvem in drugem delu Stroopove naloge. Nevroticizem, ekstravertnost in sprejemljivost se z izvršilnimi funkcijami niso pomembno povezovali. Ugotovitve naše raziskave kažejo, da obstajajo pomembne povezave med odprtostjo in vestnostjo ter izvršilnimi funkcijami, ki bi jih bilo v prihodnosti potrebno podrobneje raziskati.In the past decade, there has been an increased interest among researchers in the relationship between personality and executive functions, and how the two constructs relate to each other. Despite the growing number of authors who have researched this phenomenon, the findings are quite inconsistent and contradictory. In our research we focused on the associations between the Big Five personality factors and cognitive flexibility, working memory and inhibition. 321 participants (of which 109 were men) aged between 8 and 86 years took part in the research. The Verbal Working Memory Task was used to measure working memory. The task consisted of four parts, each testing memory span in a different way. The participants had to remember the given sequence of information and recall it after a short delay. The computerized version of the Flexible Switching Test was used to measure cognitive flexibility. The participants had to decide if a stimulus consisting of a combination of a letter and a number corresponded to the given rules. Inhibition was measured with the computerized version of the Stroop task in which participants had to respond to presented congruent and incongruent stimuli. We used three different measures inhibition to control whether different calculation methods differ from each other. We also used the Big Five Personality Test to measure personality traits. The results showed that the openness correlates positively with verbal working memory, cognitive flexibility and one measure of inhibition, calculated in the second part of the Stroop task. Conscientiousness was negatively correlated with two measures of inhibition, calculated in first and second part of the Stroop task. Neuroticism, extraversion and agreeableness were not correlated with any of the executive functions. The findings of our research show that there are significant connections between openness, conscientiousness and executive functions, which should be in future investigated in more detail