Age-related differences in executive control of working memory

Holtzer, Roee; Stern, Yaakov; Rakitin, Brian C. · 2004 · Crossref

DOI: 10.3758/bf03206324

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Summary

This study investigates age-related differences in the executive control of working memory, specifically addressing inconsistencies in prior literature regarding whether aging impairs dual-task performance. The authors hypothesized that aging would lead to disproportionate dual-task costs even when tasks utilize different perceptual modalities, that increased temporal overlap between tasks would exacerbate these costs, and that specific memory mechanisms (encoding and output) would show age-related vulnerability to interference. To test these hypotheses, the researchers employed a dual-task paradigm involving 16 young adults (ages 19–31) and 16 older adults (ages 65–85). Participants performed a delayed visual recognition task (DVRT), tapping the visuospatial sketchpad, and a computerized digit span (CDS) task, tapping the phonological loop. The study compared single-task baseline performance against two dual-task conditions: partial interference (PI), where the digit task overlapped only with the retention phase of the visual task, and complete interference (CI), where the digit task overlapped with the encoding, retention, and output phases of the visual task. Performance was measured via reaction time and accuracy for the DVRT and digit recall accuracy for the CDS. The results indicated that aging was associated with significant dual-task costs. Older participants exhibited slower reaction times and lower accuracy compared to younger participants, with these deficits becoming more pronounced in the CI condition relative to the PI condition. Proportional transformation analyses confirmed that the costs incurred by older adults were disproportionate to baseline group differences, suggesting a specific decline in executive control rather than general slowing. Furthermore, the sensitivity of specific memory operations to interference was age-dependent. Older adults showed disproportionately larger deficits in digit recall accuracy when encoding and output processes were interfered with (in the CI condition) compared to when only retention was interfered with (in the PI condition). This suggests that the mechanisms governing encoding and output are particularly vulnerable to interference in older age. The findings conclude that ensuring tasks represent different perceptual modalities is insufficient to isolate age-related executive deficits; the degree of temporal overlap and the specific cognitive operations involved must also be considered. The study demonstrates that normal aging affects the central executive’s ability to allocate resources during periods of high temporal overlap, particularly impacting encoding and output processes. These results refine the understanding of working memory in aging, indicating that executive control declines are not uniform but are sensitive to the timing and nature of concurrent task demands.

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Topics

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• cognitive capacity variation
• dual task multitasking