Less attentional selectivity as a result of declining inhibition in older adults

Tipper, Steven P.

doi:10.3758/bf03334765

Cited by 202 publications

(193 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Because older adults do not reliably show negative priming on selectiveattention tasks requiring target identification McDowd & Oseas-Kreger, 1991;Stoltzfus et al, 1993;Tipper, 1991), a finding that we interpret as support for the assumption of deficient inhibition in older adults, the Bjork (1989) and Neumann (Neumann & DeSchepper, 1992) view would seem to predict that the difference in RT between TBF and new recognition probes should be smaller for older than for younger adults. This is because if the slowed response to TBF probes is due to a negative priming effect that delays encoding of TBF items, then a group of participants who show reduced negative priming effects should also show smaller delays in the encoding of the TBF probes and a smaller TBF-new probe difference.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 59%

Studies of directed forgetting in older adults.

Zacks¹,

Radvansky²,

Hasher³

1996

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

302

346

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Younger and older adults were compared in 4 directed forgetting experiments. These varied in the use of categorized versus unrelated word lists and in the use of item by item versus blocked remember-forget cueing procedures. Consistent with L. Hasher and R. T. Zacks's (1988) hypothesis of impaired inhibitory mechanisms in older adults, a variety of findings indicated that this age group is less able than yoimger adults to suppress the processing and retrieval of items designated as to be forgotten (TBF). Specifically, in comparison with younger adults, older adults produced more TBF word intrusions on an immediate recall test (Experiments 1A and 1B), took longer to reject TBF items (relative to a neutral baseline) on an immediate recognition test (Experiment 3), and recalled (Experiments 1A, 1B, and 2) and recognized (Experiments 1B and 2) relatively more TBF items on delayed retention tests in which all studied items were designated as targets.In this article, we present four experiments comparing the performance of younger and older adults on directed forgetting tasks. In this type of task (e.g., see Bjork, 1989), participants are presented items to study, some of which they are told to remember and others of which they are told to forget. Because the cueing as to which items are to be remembered (TBR items) and which are to be forgotten (TBF items) occurs after the items have been presented for study, participants must pay some attention to each item as it is presented. Thus, the directed forgetting paradigm investigates the ability to forget some inputs that one has recently attended to while at the same time remembering others presented in the same context and near the same time. To the degree that one is successful at this task, as younger adults generally are, the following trends are seen: The presence of TBF items on a list does not reduce recall or recognition of TBR items; there are few intrusions of TBF items when participants are asked to report only TBR items; and performance on TBF items is relatively poor when, on a later retention test, participants are asked to report TBF as well as TBR items.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 59%

Studies of directed forgetting in older adults.

Zacks¹,

Radvansky²,

Hasher³

1996

Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cogni

302

346

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A third problem is that each executive function can be assessed by several cognitive tasks. For example, inhibition function has been evaluated by the Stroop test [117], the Hayling task [23], the stop-signal paradigm [73], the antisaccade task [100], the negative priming [119] and the directed forgetting paradigm [130]. Finally, as Duncan [43; see also 19 and 99] has pointed out, tasks cease to be effective tests of executive function as soon as they are performed more than once and thus become automatic.…”

Section: The Central Executive Of Working Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain imaging of the central executive component of working memory

Collette

Linden

2002

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

498

291

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“…The critical comparison is between trials on which a distractor from trial n -1 becomes a target on trial n (the ignored repetition condition) and trials on which a different target and distractors are presented on trials n and n -I (the control condition). In initial studies, older adults failed to produce a difference between ignored repetition and control conditions, whereas younger adults showed slower responding to ignored repetition than they did to control trials (Hasher, Stoltzfus, Zacks, & Rympa, 1991;Kane, Hasher, Stoltzfus, Zacks, & Connelly, 1994;Tipper, 1991). These results were interpreted as indicating a failure of selective inhibition by the older adults (i.e., inhibition of the distractor on trial n -1 results in slowed responding when the distractor becomes the target on trial n; Neill & Valdes, 1996).…”

Section: Aging and Attentional Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attentional capture and aging: Implications for visual search performance and oculomotor control.

Kramer¹,

Hahn²,

Irwin³

et al. 1999

Psychology and Aging

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Two studies examined potential age-related differences in attentional capture. Subjects were instructed to move their eyes as quickly as possible to a color singleton target and to identify a small letter located inside it. On half the trials, a new stimulus (i.e., a sudden onset) appeared simultaneously with the presentation of the color singleton target. The onset was always a task-irrelevant distractor. Response times were lengthened, for both young and old adults, whenever an onset distractor appeared, despite the fact that subjects reported being unaware of the appearance of the abrupt onset. Eye scan strategies were also disrupted by the appearance of the onset distractors. On about 40% of the trials on which an onset appeared, subjects made an eye movement to the task-irrelevant onset before moving their eyes to the target. Fixations close to the onset were brief, suggesting parallel programming of a reflexive eye movement to the onset and goal-directed eye movement to the target. Results are discussed in terms of age-related sparing of the attentional and oculomotor processes that underlie attentional capture.The interaction of top-down or goal-directed and bottom-up or stimulus-driven influences on attentional control has become a central issue in the study of visual attention (Martin-Emerson & Kramer, 1997;Theeuwes, 1995;Yantis, 1996). When driving an automobile in unfamiliar surroundings, people spend a great deal of time intentionally directing their attention to other automobiles, pedestrians, and features of the roadway that are important to the task of driving. However, salient features of the environment, such as a brightly flashing neon sign on the side of the roadway or a loud and abrupt protestation from one of two children sitting in the backseat arguing about a favorite toy, also appear to grab or capture people's attention regardless of the intention to attend to these events.Indeed, the stimulus-driven capture of attention can have a positive influence on the task at hand, such as the sound of squealing tires alerting a driver to a potential accident ahead. However, attentional capture can also have negative consequences such as in the example above in which the driver is attending to the bright roadway sign rather than other automobiles. Analogs of these situations, that is, settings in which positive and negative consequences are realized with attentional capture, have been examined in the laboratory. This research was supported by Grant AG14966 from the National Institute on Aging. We would like to thank Angela Glass and Meredith Minear for their assistance in running the participants.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Arthur F. Kramer, Beckman Institute, University of Illinois, 405 North Mathews Avenue, Urbana. Illinois 61801. Electronic mail may be sent to akramer@s.psych.uiuc.edu.For example, Yantis and colleagues (Yantis & Hillstrom, 1994;Yantis & Jones, 1991;Yantis & Jonides, 1984 have conducted a number of studies in which subjects searched for a predefi...

show abstract

Less attentional selectivity as a result of declining inhibition in older adults

Cited by 202 publications

References 17 publications

Studies of directed forgetting in older adults.

Studies of directed forgetting in older adults.

Brain imaging of the central executive component of working memory

Attentional capture and aging: Implications for visual search performance and oculomotor control.

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