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Normal Aging of the Attentional Control Functions That Underlie Working Memory
Stéphanie Sylvain-Roy1, Ovidiu Lungu1, Sylvie Belleville2
1Centre de Recherche de l'Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie de Montréal, Quebec, Canada.
Summary
Aging impairs inhibition, a key attentional control function (ACF), affecting working memory (WM) differently across tasks. Older adults rely on updating for some WM tasks, unlike younger adults who depend on processing speed.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience of Aging
Background:
- Aging impacts cognitive functions, including attentional control and working memory.
- Understanding age-related changes in attentional control functions (ACFs) is crucial for explaining working memory (WM) performance variations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess how aging affects three specific ACFs: shifting, inhibition, and updating.
- To determine the contribution of these ACFs to complex working memory tasks in younger and older adults.
Main Methods:
- Administered complex working memory tasks (Brown-Peterson, reading span, alpha span) and ACF tasks to 75 younger and 75 older adults.
- Derived composite measures for shifting, inhibition, and updating.
Main Results:
- Inhibition was the only ACF significantly impaired in older adults, even after controlling for processing speed.
- Older adults showed reduced performance on Brown-Peterson and reading span tasks, but not alpha span.
- In older adults, updating contributed to Brown-Peterson and reading span performance, while inhibition was linked to alpha span. Younger adults' WM performance was primarily driven by processing speed.
Conclusions:
- Complex working memory tasks engage distinct attentional control functions.
- The specific ACFs contributing to working memory performance differ between younger and older adults, highlighting age-related cognitive shifts.
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