Intact episodic retrieval in older adults: evidence from an auditory negative priming task

BACKGROUND/STUDY CONTEXT: The negative priming effect has been traditionally interpreted as the inhibitory aftereffect of distractor processing. According to inhibitory deficit theory, older adults should be more impaired by auditory distractors. Recent studies have shown that episodic retrieval processes are involved in the effect. However, so far there is no direct evidence that this is true for older adults.

In an auditory four-alternative identification task, young adults (18-30 years), younger seniors (60-67 years), and older seniors (68-78 years) identified target sounds while ignoring distractor sounds. In ignored repetition trials, the prime distractor was repeated as the probe target, whereas there was no stimulus repetition in control trials. Reaction times and errors were analyzed.

Negative priming was present in all age groups. Senior groups showed increased negative priming in reaction times. All age groups revealed a comparable increase of probe errors with the former prime response in ignored repetition compared with control trials. There was no age difference in the frequency of responding with the former prime response in control trials.

An increase in prime response errors in ignored repetition trials is consistent with the involvement of episodic retrieval processes in negative priming in younger and older adults. Inconsistent with both an inhibitory account of negative priming and the inhibitory deficit theory of cognitive aging, older adults neither showed evidence of reduced negative priming nor of impaired restraint control.