A Deficit in Older Adults' Effortful Selection of Cued Responses

Abstract

J. J. Adam et al. (1998) provided evidence for an "age-related deficit in preparing 2 fingers on 2 hands, but not on 1 hand" (p. 870). Instead of having an anatomical basis, the deficit could result from the effortful processing required for individuals to select cued subsets of responses that do not coincide with left and right subgroups. The deficit also could involve either the ultimate benefit that can be attained or the time required to attain that benefit. The authors report 3 experiments (Ns = 40, 48, and 32 participants, respectively) in which they tested those distinctions by using an overlapped hand placement (participants alternated the index and middle fingers of the hands), a normal hand placement, and longer precuing intervals than were used in previous studies. The older adults were able to achieve the full precuing benefit shown by younger adults but required longer to achieve the maximal benefit for most pairs of responses. The deficit did not depend on whether the responses were from different hands, suggesting that it lies primarily in the effortful processing required for those subsets of cued responses that are not selected easily.

Age-related differences in corticospinal excitability during a choice reaction time task

“…In line with neurophysiological findings, evidence from behavioral studies indicates that aging affects the readiness of the motor system, particularly in CRT tasks (Adam et al 1998;Bherer and Belleville 2004;Proctor et al 2006). This may be due to a slower transition from a preparatory to an executive mode of operation (Burke and Kamen 1995) and/or an impaired ability of older individuals to benefit from precued information (Fujiyama et al 2011).…”

Age differences in response selection for pure and mixed stimulus–response mappings and tasks

“…In contrast, older adults show at most a small deficit compared to younger adults in specific switch costs associated with a change of the task on the current trial from that on the preceding trial. Moreover, older adults show little if any deficit in the ability to prepare for a cued task or response set (Hahn, Andersen, & Kramer, 2004;Proctor, Vu, & Pick, 2006). Thus, an age-related deficit exists in processes associated with maintaining and selecting between two task sets, but not those involved in preparing for the task set or executing the task switch.…”

Determinants of the benefit for consistent stimulus-response mappings in dual-task performance of four-choice tasks

“…Since the mirrored mapping requires crossed responses for the middle positions as well as for the side positions, the emergent mapping-choice account predicts that the middle-position responses should now show a consistency benefit similar to that shown by the side positions. Alternatively, because the side positions are more salient than the middle positions (Adam et al, 1998;Proctor, Vu, & Pick, 2006), participants may still apply the "respond opposite" rule only to the side positions, as they would in three-choice tasks, which would restrict the benefit for consistent mirrored mappings to those positions. The experiment also examined whether the consistency benefit is evident at all SOAs, as is predicted by the emergent mapping-choice account.…”