Topic: mental schema

The transitive inference (TI) task facilitates the examination of decision-making processes by tapping into a mental schema formed from previously acquired knowledge. In this task, individuals initially learn the ordinal relationships between pairs of adjacent rank-ordered items in the hierarchy, such as A>B>C>D>E, and E>F. Subsequently, they must infer the relationships between novel item pairs (e.g., DvsE) during a test phase. In the process of making these comparisons, a Symbolic Distance (SD) effect emerges, influencing performance. Accuracy increases and reaction times decr

The Catechol-O-Methyl-Transferase (COMT) gene plays a crucial role in dopamine (Da) metabolism within the prefrontal cortex, exerting a direct impact on essential cognitive processes. This study aims to explore the influence of how the Val158Met polymorphism in the COMT gene impacts the solution of inferential problems through a transitive inference task. 83 participants were categorized into three COMT genotypes: Met/Met, Val/Val, and Val/Met. Initially, they were instructed to learn the relationships between adjacent pairs of items in a rank-ordered set (A>B>C>D>E>F) through t