Brain training
Have you ever heard of the game whack-amole? The idea is to hit the unfortunate mammal as its head emerges randomly from a series of holes. Sometimes players try to predict the hole from which the mole will next emerge and hit too early. This is an example of an impulsive response.
On the other hand, if they get frustrated and repeatedly hit the mole following emergence, this is an example of a compulsive response.
As part of her postgraduate studies at the Royal Agricultural University, PhD student Kirsty Roberts designed a test to measure impulsive and compulsive responses in horses. Rather than teaching the horses to operate a hammer, the animals were faced with a series of three LCD screens. At random, the screens would light up white and if the horse selected the lit screen within five seconds he would automatically receive a food reward. If the horse responded too early (before the screen lit up), the computer recorded this as an impulsive response, whereas repeated selection of a previously lit screen was compulsive.
How does blink rate fit in?
Kirsty discovered that horses who blinked more than 21 times a minute performed significantly more impulsive and compulsive responses compared to the group that blinked 15 times per minute or less.
The ability of the horse to suppress an inappropriate response is crucial to so many aspects of horse training, and it seems as though blink rate may be able to tell us a good deal about which animals are more likely to respond in an impulsive or compulsive manner.