The rat intradimensional/extradimensional (ID/ED) task, first described by Birrell and Brown 18 years ago, has become the predominant means by which attentional set-shifting is investigated in rodents: the use of rats in the task has been described in over 135 publications by researchers from nearly 90 universities and pharmaceutical companies. There is variation in the protocols used by different groups, including differences in apparatus, stimuli (both stimulus dimensions and exemplars within), and also the methodology. Nevertheless, most of these variations seem to be of little consequence: there is remarkable similarity in the profile of published data, with consistency of learning rates and in the size and reliability of the set-shifting and reversal ‘costs’. However, we suspect that there may be inconsistent data that is unpublished or perhaps ‘failed experiments’ that may have been caused by unintended deviations from effective protocols. The purpose of this review is to describe our approach and the rationale behind certain aspects of the protocol, including common pitfalls that are encountered when establishing an effective local protocol.

Birrell和Brown于18年前首次描述了大鼠的维度内/维度（ID / ED）任务，它已成为研究啮齿动物注意力转移的主要手段：在上文中已经描述了在任务中使用大鼠的方法。来自近90所大学和制药公司的研究人员发表了135种出版物。不同群体使用的协议存在差异，包括仪器，刺激（内部的刺激尺寸和示例）以及方法上的差异。然而，这些变化中的大多数似乎几乎没有什么关系：已发布数据的概况具有显着相似性，学习率的一致性以及集合转移和逆转“成本”的大小和可靠性。然而，我们怀疑可能存在未发布的不一致数据，或者可能是由于与有效协议的意外差异导致的“失败的实验”。这篇综述的目的是描述我们的方法以及该协议某些方面的原理，包括在建立有效的本地协议时遇到的常见陷阱。