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Aging and random task switching: the role of endogenous versus exogenous task selection.
Christopher P Terry1, Martin J Sliwinski
1Department of Psychology, Elmira College, Elmira, New York 14901, USA. cterry@elmira.edu
Experimental Aging Research
|January 10, 2012
Summary
Older adults show significant age-related differences in task switching, particularly in mixing costs during exogenous switching and reduced switch rates in endogenous switching.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Neuroscience
- Human aging research
Background:
- Task switching research identifies mixing costs (MCs) and switch costs (SCs) as key performance metrics.
- Age-related differences in cognitive flexibility are a significant area of study.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how age influences mixing costs and switch costs under different task selection methods.
- To compare performance in cued (exogenous) and voluntary (endogenous) task switching between young and older adults.
Main Methods:
- Study involved 26 young adults (18-21 years) and 25 older adults (74-87 years).
- Participants completed cued and voluntary task switching paradigms.
- Performance metrics included mixing costs and switch costs.
Main Results:
- Older adults exhibited larger age differences in mixing costs during exogenous switching than predicted by baseline speed.
- In endogenous switching, smaller age differences were observed for mixing costs and switch costs, with older adults showing reduced switch rates.
Conclusions:
- Older adults are slower at updating task sets in exogenous switching.
- Older adults adopt a more persistent processing style in endogenous switching to mitigate some age-related costs.
