Main content
Aging & Inhibition in Task Switching /
The effect of aging on inhibition in task switching: Controlling for episodic retrieval
Date created: | Last Updated:
: DOI | ARK
Creating DOI. Please wait...
Category: Project
Description: Inhibition in task switching is inferred from n–2 task repetition costs: responses are slower and less accurate to ABA task switching sequences than CBA sequences, thought to reflect the persisting inhibition of task A in an ABA sequence which hampers re-activation attempts. Despite the inhibitory deficit hypothesis of age-related decline in cognition, studies have found no consistent age-related difference in n–2 task repetition costs. Recent work has shown that extant measures of the n–2 task repetition cost are contaminated with episodic retrieval effects, which inflate estimates of inhibition. The current study revisited potential age-related differences in n–2 task repetition costs in a design that controls for episodic interference. We find equivalent n–2 task repetition costs in older and younger adults in response times, which provides converging evidence of no age-related decline of inhibition in task switching.