Inhibitory Control Across the Life Span

Abstract

Findings from previous research suggest that inhibitory control improves during early childhood and declines during late adulthood. Very few researchers, however, have examined life-span changes in this ability in single studies. Within this life-span context, we investigated 1 type of inhibitory control--the ability to inhibit aprepotent response and generate an incompatible response--in individuals ranging from 6 to 82 years of age. Examination of raw reaction time data revealed a significantly larger inhibitory control effect for children and older adults than for young adults. Using proportional and z score transformations, we demonstrated that a processing speed explanation is sufficient to account for the differences in performance between children and young adults; this explanation, however, did not adequately explain the discrepancy between young and older adults. Taken together, these findings suggest that, above and beyond differences in processing speed, inhibitory control was less efficient in older adults. Our findings are consistent with the assertion that inhibitory control develops quite early and declines at the later end of the developmental spectrum.

A latent variables examination of processing speed, response inhibition, and working memory during typical development

“…After controlling for processing speed, only the effect of age on working memory remained significant. These results are consistent with previous work showing that processing speed, response inhibition, and working memory have a protracted course of development (e.g., Kail, 1991; Jerger, Pearson, & Spence, 1999; Luna, Garver, Urban, Lazar, & Sweeny, 2004 ; Williams et al; 1999; Wright, Waterman, Prescott, & Murdoch-Eaton, 2003) and that age-related improvements in these latter abilities are ameliorated once age-related improvements in processing speed are taken into account (e.g., Christ et al, 2001; Fry & Hale, 1996; Span et al, 2004). …”

“…Consistent with this notion, there is a growing body of evidence showing that processing speed mediates gains in other cognitive abilities – including those that are subsumed under the rubric of executive function (Christ et al, 2001; Fry & Hale, 1996; Kail, 2007; Nettlebeck & Burns, 2010; Span et al, 2004). In the context of our cross-sectional study, we found that processing speed accounted for considerable variance in working memory and response inhibition across development.…”

“…Processing speed refers to the efficiency with which information is processed (Kail & Salthouse, 1994). Studies have demonstrated that age-related improvements in processing speed contribute to age-related improvements in other abilities – including those that are subsumed under the rubric of executive function, such as response inhibition (e.g., Christ, White, Mandernach, & Keys, 2001) and working memory (e.g., Fry & Hale, 1996). An illustrative example is provided by Span, Ridderinkhof, and van der Molen (2004), who administered tasks of processing speed, response inhibition, and working memory to participants 8 to 79 years of age.…”

“I Can Read These Colors.” Orthographic Manipulations and the Development of the Color-Word Stroop

“…Inhibitory control, assessed with measures other than the Stroop (e.g., Stop signal), also shows a protracted development from childhood to adulthood (Williams et al, 1999; Bedard et al, 2002; Davidson et al, 2006), although some suggest it develops very early (by grade 2; Schachar and Logan, 1990; Christ et al, 2001). It appears, however, that the rate at which inhibition develops changes as a function of age (Luna and Sweeney, 2004; Best et al, 2009; for reviews).…”

Detecting Age Differences in Resistance to Perceptual and Motor Interference

“…The latter concern has been addressed to some extent. In a well examined sample, Christ and colleagues (Christ et al, 2001; McAuley et al, 2006) addressed this concern and established that the inhibitory deficit in the older participants could not be explained by response slowing. They went on to show with ex-Gaussian analysis that inhibitory limitations in older adults differed in quality from those in children.…”