Attentional set-shifting tasks are used as a measure of human fronto-executive function. the cognitive processes involved in forming an attentional set, maintaining an attentional set and shifting an attentional set are vulnerable to dysfunction arising from a number of human neurological disorders (such as attentional deficit/hyperactivity disorder, depression, schizophrenia) and neurodegenerative diseases (such as Parkinson's, Huntington's, Alzheimer's diseases). Recently, researches on rodents mainly continue to illustrate normal rats which are caused by different operating different performance in the attentional set-shifting tasks. And also there are few studies committed to observe the adaptability of the rats in attentional set-shifting tasks as well as different performance between species of rodents in attentional set shifting tasks. In addition, these results have elucidated the roles of multiple neurotransmitters in the manifestation of cognitive processes. This review focuses on the methodology of the attentional set-shifting tasks and the role of the neurotransmitter in cognitive processes.