Aging and sustained attention: The role of inhibitory control and mind-wandering

Sustained attention is the ability to maintain focus on a task over time. However, sustained attention tasks often engage other cognitive processes such as response inhibition. Despite these inhibitory demands and age differences in inhibitory control, older adults often outperform young adults on sustained attention tasks. The present study aimed to further our understanding of the relationship between sustained attention and inhibitory control and how this is affected by age. To this end, we used two versions of the Gradual-Onset Continuous Performance Task, which typically includes gradual transitions between frequent "go" stimuli and infrequent "no-go" stimuli. We manipulated inhibitory demands by including a 90% go condition, which encourages habitual responding, and a 10% go condition, which reduces inhibitory demands. We also interspersed mind-wandering probes and included separate measures of inhibitory control (stop-signal and go/no-go tasks) to relate to Gradual-Onset Continuous Performance Task performance. Both older and younger adults showed better sustained attention when inhibitory demands were minimized, but older adults outperformed younger adults in both conditions, showing higher A' scores and less reaction time variability. Younger adults also showed more vigilance decline over time and reported more mind-wandering. Gradual-Onset Continuous Performance Task performance correlated with both stop-signal and go/no-go tasks, indicating a role for individual differences in response inhibition. These findings suggest that sustained attention is not only preserved but can also be superior in older adults. Maintained vigilance may help offset age-related declines in response inhibition and processing speed, supporting everyday functions such as driving, at least over relatively short periods. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).