Overshooting cognitive control adjustments in older age
Evidence from conflict- and error-related slowing in the Stroop, Simon, and flanker tasks
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21283165 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mirela Dubravac (0000-0002-4096-2912, University of Bern), B Meier (0000-0003-3303-6854, University of Bern, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 234 |
| Pages | 103874 |
| Publication date | 2023-04-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Acta Psychologica (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0001-6918 • E-ISSN: 1873-6297 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.actpsy.2023.103874 |
| PMID | 36857883 |
| OpenAlex | W4322490736 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 61 |
Although humans gain considerable knowledge from young to older adulthood, aging is also associated with cognitive deficits. This study investigated age-related changes in dynamic cognitive control adjustments after cognitive conflicts and errors. Specifically, we compared younger and older adults' time courses of two established phenomena - post-conflict slowing and post-error slowing. Both age groups completed modified versions of three widely used cognitive conflict tasks (Stroop, Simon, and flanker task). In these tasks, occasional incongruent information triggered a conflict that had to be resolved accordingly but sometimes elicited errors. We tracked conflict- and error-related slowing across four trials after a correct conflict trial (i.e., post-conflict slowing) and an incorrect conflict trial (i.e., post-error slowing). Post-error slowing was generally stronger than post-conflict slowing. Older adults showed a disproportionally strong slowing on the first post-error trial compared to younger adults. In contrast, on subsequent trials, older adults showed a relatively stronger speed up. This pattern of results was consistent across all three tasks. The greater cross-trial response time changes in older adults suggests a deficit in fine-tuning cognitive control adjustments
Audiology · Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Stroop effect · Task (project management) · Cognitive Abilities and Testing · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics · Medicine · Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies · Neuroscience · Psychology
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| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |