(1CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China) (2Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China)
Abstract:Social problems caused by impulsivity have gathered much attention from the public in recent years. What is impulsivity? And how to measure it? Research of these two questions began in the 1930’s and has led to many findings and produced a plethora of measurements. We reviewed and examined existing definitions and measurements of impulsivity, described in detail 11 scales and five behavioral tasks commonly used to measure impulsivity, and summarized the relationships among these scales and behavioral measurements. Out of this practice, we found two major problems in current research of impulsivity: no commonly accepted definition of impulsivity and the lack of useful application principles in its measurement, leading to much confusion and chaos. We propose that future studies should apply new and advanced methods to deeply integrate existing definitions and measurements of impulsivity, such as measuring a large number of participants with all the major scales and behavioral tasks and then modeling the results with machine-leaning algorithms. This practice will be key to improve the current situation and substantially advance impulsivity research.