Age-related processing strategies and go–nogo effects in task-switching: an ERP study
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)
Summary
This study investigates age-related differences in cognitive processing strategies during task-switching (TS), specifically examining how informative versus non-informative cues and the inclusion of "nogo" stimuli (requiring response inhibition) affect performance and neural activity. The research addresses the problem of declining cognitive flexibility and working memory capacity in aging, motivated by the need to distinguish between general slowing and specific strategic deficits in older adults. The researchers employed an event-related potential (ERP) study design with 39 young adults (mean age 21.6) and 40 older adults (mean age 65.7). Participants completed three TS paradigms: (1) informatively cued TS with go and nogo stimuli (letter/parity classification), (2) non-informatively cued TS with go and nogo stimuli, and (3) informatively cued TS with only go stimuli (color/shape classification). Behavioral measures included reaction time (RT), hit rate, and error rate, while ERPs recorded cue-locked components (P2, P3b, contingent negative variation [CNV]) and target-locked components (N2, P3b). Behavioral results indicated that older adults exhibited slower RTs, lower hit rates, higher error rates, and significantly higher mixing costs compared to young adults. Crucially, young adults demonstrated a strategic advantage in the go-only paradigm, maintaining the previous task-set active during task-repeat trials, evidenced by shorter RTs and larger cue-locked P3b amplitudes. However, when nogo stimuli were introduced, this strategic benefit disappeared in young adults, with RTs and P3b amplitudes becoming similar for switch and repeat trials. In contrast, older adults failed to develop appropriate task representations or preparation strategies across all complex conditions, indicated by the absence of cue-locked P3b, CNV, and target-locked P3b components. Older adults also showed reduced amplitudes in cue-locked early positivity and target-locked N2 components compared to younger participants. The study concludes that the primary difference between age groups lies in their execution strategies. Young adults utilize explicit representations of task structures, allowing for anticipatory preparation, although this strategy is disrupted by the added inhibitory demands of nogo stimuli. Older adults rely solely on implicit control strategies, lacking the ability to form explicit task representations or engage in effective preparatory processes. These findings suggest that age-related declines in task-switching are not merely due to processing speed but reflect a fundamental shift in cognitive strategy and an inability to maintain active task-sets under complex conditions.
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed.
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | OpenAlex-citations | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-24 |
| archive | success | unpaywall | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-26 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-26 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-24 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 6 | 2026-06-25 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-26; verification: verified.
Topics
Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.