Mechanisms of spatial contextual cueing in younger and older adults

Kojouharova, Petia; Nagy, Boglárka; Czigler, István; Gaál, Zsófia Anna · 2023 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1111/psyp.14361

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

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Summary

This study investigates whether the mechanisms underlying spatial contextual cueing—a phenomenon where visual search is faster in repeated spatial configurations compared to novel ones—differ between younger and older adults. While previous research has debated whether this effect stems from early attentional guidance or late response facilitation, it remains unclear if aging alters these underlying processes. The authors hypothesized that while the behavioral contextual cueing effect might remain intact in older adults, the cognitive mechanisms driving it could shift from early attentional processes to later response-related processes. The experiment involved 20 younger adults (mean age 21.2) and 19 older adults (mean age 67.05). Participants performed a visual search task, identifying the orientation of a target letter “T” among distractor letters “L” in repeated or novel spatial configurations. Behavioral performance was measured via reaction times (RTs), and neural activity was recorded using event-related potentials (ERPs). Specifically, the study analyzed the N2pc component (reflecting early attentional allocation), the P3 component (reflecting intermediate processes like stimulus categorization or decision confidence), and the response-locked lateralized readiness potential (rLRP, reflecting late response preparation and execution). Behavioral results showed that both younger and older adults exhibited faster target identification in repeated configurations, indicating that the contextual cueing effect remains intact with aging. However, the neural correlates differed significantly between groups. In younger adults, the magnitude of the behavioral cueing effect correlated positively with amplitude differences in both the N2pc and P3 components for repeated versus novel trials, but not with the rLRP. This suggests that in younger individuals, the effect is driven by early attentional allocation and intermediate stimulus categorization or decision confidence. In contrast, older adults showed no such correlations with N2pc or P3. Instead, their behavioral cueing effect correlated only with the rLRP amplitude difference, indicating that their faster responses in repeated contexts were driven by more efficient late-stage response organization rather than early attentional benefits. These findings demonstrate that while the behavioral outcome of spatial contextual cueing is preserved in older adults, the underlying mechanisms shift from an early/intermediate locus to a late locus. This suggests that older adults may compensate for age-related declines in early attentional processing by relying on efficient response preparation mechanisms. The study highlights that implicit learning processes like contextual cueing can remain robust in aging, but the neural pathways supporting them adapt to preserve performance.

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• cognitive aging