Age Differences In Inhibition Research Articles

The roles of sensory function and cognitive load in age differences in inhibition: Evidence from the Stroop task.

To explore the roles of visual function and cognitive load in aging of inhibition, the present study adopted a 2 (visual perceptual stress: noise, nonnoise) × 2 (cognitive load: low, high) × 2 (age: young, old) mixed design. The Stroop task was adopted to measure inhibition. The task presentation was masked with Gaussian noise according to the visual function of each individual in order to match visual perceptual stress between age groups. The results indicated that age differences in the Stroop effect were influenced by visual function and cognitive load. When the cognitive load was low, older adults exhibited a larger Stroop effect than did younger adults in the nonnoise condition, and this age difference disappeared when the visual noise of the 2 age groups was matched. Conversely, in the high cognitive load condition, we observed significant age differences in the Stroop effect in both the nonnoise and noise conditions. The additional cognitive load made the age differences in the Stroop task reappear even when visual perceptual stress was equivalent. These results demonstrate that visual function plays an important role in the aging of inhibition and its role is moderated by cognitive load. (PsycINFO Database Record

Reflections of distraction in memory: Transfer of previous distraction improves recall in younger and older adults.

Three studies explored whether younger and older adults' free recall performance can benefit from prior exposure to distraction that becomes relevant in a memory task. Participants initially read stories that included distracting text. Later, they studied a list of words for free recall, with half of the list consisting of previously distracting words. When the memory task was indirect in its use of distraction (Study 1), only older adults showed transfer, with better recall of previously distracting compared with new words, which increased their recall to match that of younger adults. However, younger adults showed transfer when cued about the relevance of previous distraction both before studying the words (Study 2) and before recalling the words (Study 3) in the memory test. Results suggest that both younger and older adults encode distraction, but younger adults require explicit cueing to use their knowledge of distraction. In contrast, older adults transfer knowledge of distraction in both explicitly cued and indirect memory tasks. Results are discussed in terms of age differences in inhibition and source-constrained retrieval.

Age differences in inhibition of return and inhibitory tagging during spatial orienting of attention

Age differences in inhibition of return and inhibitory tagging during spatial orienting of attention

Age Differences in Inhibition of Schema-Activated Distractors

In recent years a debate has ensued over the arguments that normal aging is associated with a reduction in the efficiency of inhibitory mechanisms underlying selective attention, leading to disruptions in the normal operation of working memory. The purpose of the study reported here was to investigate the relationship between age, inhibitory functioning, and working memory, adapting a procedure previously used by Gernsbacher and Faust (1991) to measure the suppression of activated, but no-longer-relevant information in working memory. Young and older adults viewed picture arrays of objects found in common settings, and then judged whether a target word named an item from the previously presented array. Older adults relative to young adults demonstrated less suppression of critical target items. The implications of these findings regarding inhibitory function in old age are discussed.

OLD AGE, INHIBITION, AND THE PART-SET CUING EFFECT

This experiment tested the hypothesis that older adults have a general inhibitory deficit. The part-set cuing effect, which occurs when people recall fewer items from a set after being cued with some items of the set, was examined, as this effect is assumed to be caused by general inhibition. Both older and younger adults recalled state names and movie stars following either study of a cue list of 25 items or no such study. No part-set cuing effect was observed for either age group for very-well-remembered states, but younger adults showed the expected effect for movie stars. In support of an inhibitory deficit for older adults, they did not show any part-set cuing effect and actually bene ted from cues. Equal overall performance and equal recall of cued items indicates that these results are due to age differences in inhibition rather than a retrieval or cue processing deficit in older adults. The importance of this inhibition deficit for adult education is discussed.

Age differences in inhibition: Possible causes and consequences

The relations among age, inhibition, perceptual speed, susceptibility to interference, and working memory were examined in a sample of 301 adults age 20 to 90. Younger adults were found to have more efficient inhibitory mechanisms than were older adults. Significant inhibition, however, was found in all age groups, including the older age group. Older adults were also found to be more susceptible to interference from irrelevant information. There was a small negative relation between interference and inhibition, suggesting that participants with the most efficient inhibitory functioning may be the least susceptible to interference. Perceptual speed, an index of processing efficiency, was found to mediate nearly all of the age-related variance in inhibition and interference. Interference, but not inhibition, was found to mediate some of the age-related variance in working memory.