Changes in executive control across the life span: Examination of task-switching performance.

Cepeda, Nicholas J.; Kramer, Arthur F.; Sather, Jessica C. M. Gonzalez de · 2001 · Developmental Psychology

DOI: 10.1037/0012-1649.37.5.715

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 the developmental trajectory of executive control processes across the human life span, specifically focusing on the ability to flexibly alternate between tasks. Motivated by the theoretical view that mental development follows an inverted U-shape—shifting from stimulus-driven behavior in childhood to internally controlled behavior in adulthood, and back to stimulus-driven behavior in old age—the authors examined how preparation and interference control mechanisms change from age 7 to 82. The research aimed to determine whether age-related differences in task-switching performance are unique to executive control or can be accounted for by general cognitive factors like perceptual speed and working memory. The researchers employed a task-switching paradigm with 152 participants divided into nine age groups. Subjects performed two simple tasks: identifying the number presented (1 or 3) or identifying the quantity of digits (one or three). The study orthogonally manipulated the Response-Cue Interval (RCI), which measures the decay of task set inertia (TSI), and the Cue-Target Interval (CTI), which measures active preparation time. Both intervals were set at either 100 ms or 1,200 ms. Performance was assessed across two practice sessions to evaluate learning effects. Additionally, participants completed standardized tests for perceptual speed and working memory to control for these variables in hierarchical regression analyses. The results revealed a U-shaped function for switch costs, with young children and older adults exhibiting significantly larger costs than young and middle-aged adults. All age groups benefited from increased preparation time (longer CTI), but children and older adults showed the largest reductions in switch costs, indicating a greater reliance on preparatory processes. Conversely, adults benefited more than children from longer RCIs, suggesting that adults experience a faster decay of interference from previous task sets. Switch costs decreased with practice, particularly for children. Crucially, hierarchical analyses demonstrated that age-related variance in task-switching performance is independent of variance in perceptual speed and working memory. These findings indicate that executive control processes, specifically those involving preparation and interference control, develop and decline across the life span in a manner distinct from general cognitive slowing or working memory capacity. The U-shaped pattern suggests that the neural mechanisms supporting flexible task coordination, likely involving frontal and prefrontal regions, are less efficient in childhood and old age. The study highlights that while children and older adults can improve performance through preparation and practice, they differ in their underlying mechanisms for managing task-set interference. This work provides a sensitive metric for assessing life-span changes in executive function, separating specific control processes from general cognitive abilities.

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. Discovered via openalex_abstract on 2026-05-08.

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-09; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• task switching
• executive function