The attentional demands of encoding and retrieval in younger and older adults: 2. Evidence from secondary task reaction time distributions

被引:22
作者
Anderson, ND
机构
[1] Univ Toronto, Dept Psychol, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada
[2] Baycrest Ctr Geriatr Care, Rotman Res Inst, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada
关键词
D O I
10.1037/0882-7974.14.4.645
中图分类号
R4 [临床医学]; R592 [老年病学];
学科分类号
1002 ; 100203 ; 100602 ;
摘要
Three studies examined the effects of encoding or retrieval on properties of secondary task reaction time (RT) distributions in younger and older adults. Relative to full attention conditions, encoding and retrieval increased secondary task RT medians and standard deviations more for older adults than for younger adults, and the age-related RT increase was most pronounced among the slowest RTs. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed two age-related mechanisms underlying these effects, which were interpreted as cognitive slowing and reductions in attentional resources. Cognitive slowing affects the entire RT distribution regardless of the memory task. By contrast, reduced attentional resources result in very long RTs, especially when the tasks require self-initiated encoding or retrieval operations.
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页码:645 / 655
页数:11
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