Abstract
Several studies have investigated the age-related impact in cognitive action control. However, to our knowledge, none of the studies have focused on the effect of moderate age on the strength of automatic activation according to the activation-suppression model. We therefore investigated the effect of moderate age on cognitive action control using an oculomotor version of the Simon task and distributional analyses. A group of middle-aged (n = 39; 57 ± 9 years) healthy adults were compared to a group of young healthy participants (n = 43; 24 ± 3 years). We first analyzed the overall impact of age on the congruence effect and then used conditional accuracy functions (CAFs) and delta plots to assess the strength of automatic activation and selective inhibition, respectively. Compared to young participants, middle-aged participants showed a greater congruence effect as well as higher rates of fast errors in conflict situations indicating an enhanced impulsive action selection. Furthermore, the overall downward slope of the congruence effect’s evolution was significantly steeper in older participants and the last slope tended to be significantly steeper. This may indicate that the middle-aged participants exerted a stronger selective inhibition. Our results suggest that middle-aged adults are more prone to impulsive action selection than young adults. Recent theories postulate that older adults might implement compensatory mechanisms to supply cognitive difficulties. This is in line with our results suggesting a potential greater selective inhibition. Overall, this study proposes that moderate aging impacts both processes of impulsive response selection and suppression underlying cognitive action control.
Highlights
As they get older, adults experience increasing difficulties with cognitive functions such as working memory and attention
We investigated whether the evaluation of the dynamics of cognitive action was specific to the response modality and proposed this oculomotor version of the Simon task to a group of young and healthy participants (Duprez et al, 2016)
We reported results in line with the activation-suppression model showing a strong automatic activation for fast responses and a congruence effect that decreased with time reflecting the gradual build up of selective inhibition
Summary
Adults experience increasing difficulties with cognitive functions such as working memory and attention. Considering imaging and behavioral evidences in favor of an active suppression mechanism being more effective with time (Forstmann et al, 2008; Wylie et al, 2010), the activation-suppression model seems to be a good way to provide insights on the temporal dynamics of cognitive action control Both the strength of the capture by the irrelevant stimulus dimension and the ability to selectively inhibit unwanted responses are considered as key components of cognitive action control, and it is necessary to assess both aspects, in order to achieve a more comprehensive view of this process (van den Wildenberg et al, 2010)
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