The DOI matches its Crossref record; 65 of the 65 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
On the ability to inhibit thought and action: a theory of an act of control
Abstract
Many situations require people to stop or change their current thoughts and actions. We present a theory of the inhibition of thought and action to account for people's performance in such situations. The theory proposes that a control signal, such as an external stop signal or an error during performance, starts a stopping process that races against the processes underlying ongoing thought and action. If the stopping process wins, thought and action are inhibited; if the ongoing process wins, thought and action run on to completion. We develop the theory formally to account for many aspects of performance in situations with explicit stop signals, and we apply it to several sets of data. We discuss the relation between response inhibition and other acts of control in motor performance and in cognition, and we consider how our theory relates to current thinking about attentional control and automaticity.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“The classic stop-signal task is a validated tool to measure inhibitory control [8], [56] and online versions of the task have shown similar high reliability [56], [57].”
From The rollercoaster of obsessive-compulsive disorder: How chronotype and time of day affect behavioral inhibition in adults with OCD (2025) · cites this paper as [8]
In the citing paper
“Children with ADHD not only demonstrate a deficient inhibitory control in their everyday behavior, but also impaired performance on different tasks measuring inhibitory control, such as the Continuous Performance Task (CPT, Rosvold, Mirsky, Saranson, Bransome, & Beck, 1956) and the Stop Signal Task (SST, Logan & Cowan, 1984).”
From Implementation Intentions Facilitate Response Inhibition in Children with ADHD (2008) · cites this paper as Logan & Cowan, 1984
In the citing paper
“The stop-signal task has proven successful in assessing a specific aspect of cognitive control, the ability to withhold an already initiated motor response (Logan and Cowan, 1984; Verbruggen and Logan, 2008), especially in ADHD (Lipszyc and Schachar, 2010).”
From No evidence of differences in cognitive control in children with autism spectrum disorder or obsessive-compulsive disorder: An fMRI study (2019) · cites this paper as Logan and Cowan, 1984
In the citing paper
“Performance in the stop-signal paradigm is modeled as a race between a go process, which is triggered by the presentation of the go stimulus, and a stop process, which is triggered by the presentation of the stop signal.”
From Response inhibition in the stop-signal paradigm (2008) · cites this paper as [3]
In the citing paper
“When the stop process finishes before the go process, the response is inhibited; when the go processes finishes before the stop process, the response is emitted.”
From Response inhibition in the stop-signal paradigm (2008) · cites this paper as [3]
In the citing paper
“The latency of the stop process (stop-signal reaction time; SSRT) is covert and must be estimated from a stochastic model, such as the independent race model [3; Box 2].”
From Response inhibition in the stop-signal paradigm (2008) · cites this paper as [3]
In the citing paper
“Logan and Cowan [3] developed an independent race model (Figure IIa) that described the probability of responding on a stop-signal trial, p(respond|signal), the latency of go RTs that escape inhibition, and SSRT.”
From Response inhibition in the stop-signal paradigm (2008) · cites this paper as [3]
In the citing paper
“First, increasing SSD increases p(respond|signal): the stop process starts later and therefore, finishes later relative to the go process (Figure IIb).”
From Response inhibition in the stop-signal paradigm (2008) · cites this paper as [3]
In the citing paper
“The point at which the stop process finishes can be estimated from the observed go-RT distribution on no-signal trials and the observed p(respond|signal) for a given SSD (see Figure IIa).”
From Response inhibition in the stop-signal paradigm (2008) · cites this paper as [3]
In the citing paper
“According to the model, p(respond|signal) depends primarily on three factors: SSD, go RT and SSRT.”
From Response inhibition in the stop-signal paradigm (2008) · cites this paper as [3]
In the citing paper
“Third, for every SSD, increasing SSRT increases p(respond|signal) because the probability that the stop process finishes after the go process increases (Figure IId).”
From Response inhibition in the stop-signal paradigm (2008) · cites this paper as [3]
In the citing paper
“Importantly, the independent race model provides methods for estimating SSRT.”
From Response inhibition in the stop-signal paradigm (2008) · cites this paper as [3]
In the citing paper
“Second, for every SSD, increasing go RT decreases p(respond|signal) because the probability that the stop process finishes before the go process increases (Figure IIc).”
From Response inhibition in the stop-signal paradigm (2008) · cites this paper as [3]
In the citing paper
“In situations when there is a conflict, for instance when the subject has to inhibit a planned saccade by a stop signal introduced with a short delay after the target onset, the behavior becomes probabilistic (the saccade is suppressed on some trials, but not on other trials) (Logan and Cowan, 1984; Boucher et al., 2007).”
From Decision Making in Recurrent Neuronal Circuits (2008) · cites this paper as Logan and Cowan, 1984
Citations
Cites
Shiffrin, R. M., & Schneider, W. (1977) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.84.2.127 · Cited by 7,335
Egeth, H. E., & Kahneman, D. J. (1975) · The American Journal of Psychology · doi:10.2307/1421603 · Cited by 6,976
Lane, S. D. (2016) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781315506173-8 · Cited by 4,707
Plans and the structure of behavior.
Miller, G. A., Galanter, E., & Pribram, K. H. (1960) · doi:10.1037/10039-000 · Cited by 4,630
The Integrative Action of the Nervous System.
Sherrington, C. (1907) · The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease · doi:10.1097/00005053-190734120-00021 · Cited by 4,136
Acquisition of cognitive skill
Anderson, J. R. (1982) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/0033-295x.89.4.369 · Cited by 3,663
Brown, R. W. (1960) · Language · doi:10.2307/411065 · Cited by 3,525
Automatic and effortful processes in memory.
Hasher, L., & Zacks, R. T. (1979) · Journal of Experimental Psychology: General · doi:10.1037/0096-3445.108.3.356 · Cited by 2,812
Chronometric explorations of mind
Posner, M. I. (1978) · Cited by 2,441
Attention And Cognitive Control 1
Posner, M. I., & Snyder, C. R. R. (2024) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9781032722450-4 · Cited by 2,264
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 1,001–1,017 of 1,017
Alderson, R. M., Patros, C. H. G., Tarle, S. J., Hudec, K. L., Kasper, L. J., & Lea, S. E. (2017) · Child Neuropsychology · doi:10.1080/09297049.2015.1105207 · Cited by 33
Ciesielski, K. T., Rowland, L. M., Harris, R. J., Kerwin, A. A., Reeve, A., & Knight, J. E. (2011) · Clinical Neurophysiology · doi:10.1016/j.clinph.2010.05.027 · Cited by 32
Controlling the self: The role of the dorsal frontomedian cortex in intentional inhibition
Lynn, M. T., Muhle-Karbe, P. S., & Brass, M. (2014) · Neuropsychologia · doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.09.009 · Cited by 27
Gooskens, B., Bos, D. J., Mensen, V. T., Shook, D. A., Bruchhage, M. M. K., Naaijen, J., Wolf, I., Brandeis, D., Williams, S. C. R., Buitelaar, J. K., et al. (2019) · Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2018.11.004 · Cited by 24
Hyperactivity in Children: A Focus on Genetic Research and Psychological Theories
Kuntsi, J., & Stevenson, J. (2000) · Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review · doi:10.1023/a:1009580718281 · Cited by 45
Can arousal modulate response inhibition?
Weinbach, N., Kalanthroff, E., Avnit, A., & Henik, A. (2015) · Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition · doi:10.1037/xlm0000118 · Cited by 25
Speech-related dorsal motor cortex activity does not interfere with iBCI cursor control
Stavisky, S. D., Willett, F. R., Avansino, D. T., Hochberg, L. R., Shenoy, K. V., & Henderson, J. M. (2020) · Journal of Neural Engineering · doi:10.1088/1741-2552/ab5b72 · Cited by 25
The Influence of Generalized Anxiety Disorder on Executive Functions in Children with ADHD
Menghini, D., Armando, M., Calcagni, M., Napolitano, C., Pasqualetti, P., Sergeant, J. A., Pani, P., & Vicari, S. (2018) · European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience · doi:10.1007/s00406-017-0831-9 · Cited by 23
Cortico-spinal modularity in the parieto-frontal system: A new perspective on action control
Bufacchi, R. J., Battaglia-Mayer, A., Iannetti, G. D., & Caminiti, R. (2023) · Progress in Neurobiology · doi:10.1016/j.pneurobio.2023.102537 · Cited by 22
Georgiou, G., & Essau, C. A. (2011) · Encyclopedia of Child Behavior and Development · doi:10.1007/978-0-387-79061-9_1267 · Cited by 18
Executive control and faithfulness: Only long-term romantic relationships require prefrontal control
Ueda, R., Yanagisawa, K., Ashida, H., & Abe, N. (2018) · Experimental Brain Research · doi:10.1007/s00221-018-5181-y · Cited by 15
Naftalovich, H., Tauber, N., & Kalanthroff, E. (2020) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102316 · Cited by 14
Tamm, L., Epstein, J. N., & Becker, S. P. (2019) · Child Neuropsychology · doi:10.1080/09297049.2018.1523379 · Cited by 13
Poulton, A., Chen, L. P. E., Dali, G., Fox, M., & Hester, R. (2022) · Journal of Medical Internet Research · doi:10.2196/32922 · Cited by 11
“The initial SSD is set at 250 milliseconds and adjusts dynamically as a function of the participant response; successful inhibitions result in a 50-millisecond increase in the SSD, while unsuccessful inhibitions decrease it by 50 milliseconds.”
BackgroundInfluentialComparison of neurocognitive performance in familial versus sporadic obsessive-compulsive disorder
Bhattacharya, M., Balachander, S., Viswanath, B., & Reddy, Y. C. J. (2021) · Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2021.100666 · Cited by 5
Linkovski, O., Naftalovich, H., David, M., Seror, Y., & Kalanthroff, E. (2023) · Journal of Clinical Medicine · doi:10.3390/jcm12124075 · Cited by 3
Kalanthroff, E., Seror, Y., Sagi, N., Hochman, S., Linkovski, O., Naftalovich, H., & Simpson, H. B. (2025) · Journal of Mood & Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.xjmad.2025.100113 · Cited by 2
Metadata
- Authors
- Logan, G. D., & Cowan, W. B.
- Affiliations
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- ORCID
- Logan, Gordon D.
- Venue
- Psychological Review
- Published
- 1984-07
- Volume
- 91
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 295-327
- ISSN
- 0033-295X (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1471
- OpenAlex
- W2032983381
- Cited by
- 2,590
- References
- 65
- Citations by year
- 2026: 69 · 2025: 100 · 2024: 119 · 2023: 99 · 2022: 117 · 2021: 151 · 2020: 123 · 2019: 100 · 2018: 128 · 2017: 119 · 2016: 126 · 2015: 129 · 2014: 138 · 2013: 112 · 2012: 100
- FWCI
- 4.21
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Review (publishedVersion)
- NPARC (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Free Will and Agency
- Keywords
- response inhibition, cognitive control, executive function
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
