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The consequences of processing goal-irrelevant information during the Stroop task
Jessica Nicosia1, David Balota1
1Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences.
Psychology and Aging
|August 4, 2020
Summary
Older adults struggle more with inhibiting irrelevant information, but this does not disproportionately affect their memory for distractors compared to younger adults. Inhibitory control and memory encoding are key factors.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience of Aging
- Human Memory
Background:
- Older adults exhibit reduced inhibitory control, potentially increasing memory for distractors.
- The Stroop task is a common paradigm to assess inhibitory processing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if older adults' memory is disproportionately affected by distractor information.
- To examine the relationship between inhibitory control and memory encoding in aging.
Main Methods:
- Series of Stroop tasks (color naming, demasking, priming) with memory tests.
- Comparison of memory performance for distractor information between older and younger adults.
Main Results:
- Older adults showed disproportionate Stroop effects, indicating weaker inhibition.
- No age differences in memory for distractor words across episodic recognition, demasking, or priming tasks.
Conclusions:
- Despite challenges with inhibition, distractor information does not disproportionately impact older adults' memory.
- Memory encoding locus is crucial for understanding inhibitory processes and later memory performance.
