Schlaghecken Friederike, Maylor Elizabeth A
Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, United Kingdom.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2005 May;60(3):P158-61. doi: 10.1093/geronb/60.3.p158.
In the masked prime task, responses to supraliminal targets are influenced by previously presented subliminal primes. When targets follow primes immediately, positive compatibility effects are obtained such that performance is better when prime and target are compatible (mapped to the same response) than when they are incompatible (mapped to opposite responses). In young adults, this pattern reverses with longer interstimulus intervals (negative compatibility effect). These effects reflect an activation-followed-by-inhibition process: Primes trigger an initial activation of their corresponding motor response, which is subsequently inhibited. The present study demonstrates that healthy older adults (M = 76 years) show a substantial positive compatibility effect with a short prime-target interval, but they fail to produce reliable negative compatibility effects with longer intervals, indicating an age-related impairment in low-level motor control.
在掩蔽启动任务中，对阈上目标的反应会受到先前呈现的阈下启动刺激的影响。当目标紧随启动刺激之后时，会获得正向兼容性效应，即当启动刺激和目标兼容（映射到相同反应）时的表现要优于它们不兼容（映射到相反反应）时的表现。在年轻人中，随着刺激间隔时间延长，这种模式会逆转（负向兼容性效应）。这些效应反映了一个激活后抑制的过程：启动刺激触发其相应运动反应的初始激活，随后该激活被抑制。本研究表明，健康的老年人（平均年龄76岁）在启动刺激与目标间隔时间短时会表现出显著的正向兼容性效应，但在间隔时间长时却未能产生可靠的负向兼容性效应，这表明在低水平运动控制方面存在与年龄相关的损伤。
