Age and inhibition.

TLDR

The study interprets age effects within the Hasher‑Zacks (1988) framework, which posits inhibition as a key mechanism shaping working‑memory contents and cognitive function. The authors conducted two experiments to assess how adult age affects inhibition or negative priming in a selective‑attention task, and whether extending the response‑to‑stimulus interval alters inhibition. Experiment 1 used a 500‑ms response‑to‑stimulus interval, while Experiment 2 extended it to 1,200 ms, and the authors investigated whether young participants’ awareness of trial‑type patterns influenced whether inhibition dissipated. Younger adults consistently showed negative priming, being slower to name a letter that had been a distractor on the previous trial, whereas older adults exhibited no inhibition at either interval.

Abstract

Two experiments assess adult age differences in the extent of inhibition or negative priming generated in a selective-attention task. Younger adults consistently demonstrated negative priming effects; they were slower to name a letter on a current trial that had served as a distractor on the previous trial relative to one that had not occurred on the previous trial. Whether or not inhibition dissipated when the response to stimulus interval was lengthened from 500 ms in Experiment 1 to 1,200 ms in Experiment 2 depended upon whether young subjects were aware of the patterns across trial types. Older adults did not show inhibition at either interval. The age effects are interpreted within the Hasher-Zacks (1988) framework, which proposes inhibition as a central mechanism determining the contents of working memory and consequently influencing a wide array of cognitive functions.