Cognition is a crucial part of prefrontal executive function, which processes involved in forming an attentional set, maintaining an attentional set and shifting an attentional set. While the attentional set-shifting tasks have been used as a capital measure for detecting cognitive flexibility, it is mainly to assess the cognitive flexibility of the subjects by the detecting the ability of the attentional set-shifting. At this time, attentional set-shifting tasks include Wisconsin Card Sorting Test of human, the CANTAB cognitive test system of primates and the attentional set-shifting task of the rodent animals. Their core content is intra-dimensional acquisition(ID) and extra-dimensional shift acquisition(ED). Subjects will shift their attentional-set from one correct stimulus of a dimension to other correct stimulus of this dimension in ID stage. And subjects shift attentional-set from one dimension to another new dimension. The 7-stage task presented by Birrell and Brown are a significant task in attentional set-shifting tasks of the rodent animal, which includes simple discrimination (SD)stage, compound discrimination, (CD)stage, the first reversal learning (REV1)stage, ID stage, the second reversal learning (REV2)stage, ED stage, and the third reversal learning (REV3). The Birrell and Brown task exploits the natural foraging behaviours of rats: the rats dig in bowls to obtain a food reward. Because the rat is motivated and adapted to use odour and tactile cues to find food, learning is rapid and acquisition of seven successive two choice discriminations is possible within a few hours. In the original design, bowls could be discriminated by three stimulus dimensions – the digging medium filling the bowls, the odour added to this medium, and the bowl’s outer texture – but most experiments have used only two of these: typically digging medium and odour. When they reach a criterion performance of six consecutively correct trials, then can enter the next stage in the attentional set-shifting task. Investigator can assess cognitive flexibility of the rodents by the training times before they reach a criterion performance. In addition, Fox and Liston present the simplified 5-stage task, which includes the SD, CD, ID, REV and ED. And Bissonette presents the 4-ID task, including the SD and CD, 4-ID, REV and ED. The number of REV stages, the sequence of the stages are different in these three tasks, which resulting in the rodent animal behavior data is different. Thus, by varying the sequence of stages, previously latent deficits became detectable. However, even if in the same task, rats and mice will also produce different behavioral data due to differences in species or dimension. In involves in the internal regulation of cognitive flexibility, the medial prefrontal cortex（mPFC） and orbital prefrontal cortex（OFC）that belongs to the prefrontal cortex are the main brain areas which play the crucial part in the cognitive function. Studies found that lesions of the mPFC of rat impairer ED stage. That is, rats can’t shift their attentional set. And the rats who lesion the OFC not only impairer REV stage, but also show significant differences in the formatting attentional set and ED stage. In addition, other brain areas which include the posterior parietal cortex, anterior cingulate, basal forebrain, striatum, are also involved in the regulation of cognitive flexibility. What’s more the role of the multiple neurotransmitters including dopamine(DA), acetylcholine(Ach), serotonin(5-HT), norepinephrine(NA), also important in cognitive flexibility. The studies showed that have demonstrated an inverted-U shape function for prefrontal DA and cognitive function, which can lead to the damage of rat’s attention set-shifting, REV stage and the strengthened learning process in the ASST. The lesions of ACh in PFC can lead to rat injure the formation of attentional set, the shifting of attentional set and the REV stage in the ASST. NA mainly interacts with DA and 5-HT to mediate the rats’ behavior of the REV stage in the ASST and can also independently mediate the attentional set-shifting in the ASST. 5-HT in OFC can affect both REV stage and attentional set-shifting in the ASST which most likely through 5-HT primarily and its interactions with other neurotransmitters. The neurotransmitters construct the complex network mechanism of the cognitive flexibility by the interaction. And at present, it is still in the stage of separating the single neurotransmitter to research. Not only are the cognitive behavior results influenced by the extrinsic detection method of attentional set-shifting task, but also regulated by underlying specific regions and specific neurotransmitters of the brain. Therefore, this article has reviewed the development of attentional set shifting task, analyzes the similarities and differences between the rodent animal testing method, the attentional set-shifting task principle and the detection method. What’s more, this article has summarized the roles of the brain regions and the multiple neurotransmitters in cognitive processes, including dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine and noradrenaline. And described the current development status of attentional set-shifting task in detecting cognitive flexibility, problems and future development trend as well as provided experience to elucidated regulation mechanism and influencing factors of cognitive flexibility.