Parsons Thomas D, Barnett Michael
a Department of Psychology , University of North Texas , Denton , Texas , USA.
Appl Neuropsychol Adult. 2019 Mar-Apr;26(2):144-154. doi: 10.1080/23279095.2017.1373281. Epub 2017 Oct 4.
Executive functioning declines found in healthy aging may impact negatively on everyday activities. Inhibitory control is an executive function that involves the preclusion of irrelevant information and prohibition of prepotent responses. Decreased inhibitory control has been suggested as a feature of age-related cognitive decline. In this study, we compared a Virtual Apartment Stroop Task with paper-and-pencil and computerized Stroop modalities in older adults and young adults. The primary results were (a) within groups the classic "Stroop pattern" found in traditional modalities (e.g., paper-and-pencil; computer automated) was observed in the Virtual Apartment Stroop Task; (b) the Virtual Apartment "Stroop scores" between groups were consistent with significant differences found between older adults and young adults on the paper-and-pencil and computerized Stroop tasks; and (c) individuals in the older adult cohort performed significantly more poorly on the Virtual Apartment Stroop Task than did participants in the young adult cohort. These results suggest the potential of the Virtual Apartment Stroop Task to distinguish between prepotent response inhibition and resistance to distractor inhibition in aging adults.
健康衰老过程中出现的执行功能衰退可能会对日常活动产生负面影响。抑制控制是一种执行功能,涉及排除无关信息和抑制优势反应。抑制控制能力下降被认为是与年龄相关的认知衰退的一个特征。在本研究中,我们比较了老年人和年轻人在虚拟公寓Stroop任务与纸笔及计算机化Stroop任务模式下的表现。主要结果如下:(a)在各年龄组内,虚拟公寓Stroop任务中观察到了传统模式(如纸笔;计算机自动化)中经典的“Stroop模式”;(b)各年龄组之间的虚拟公寓“Stroop分数”与老年人和年轻人在纸笔及计算机化Stroop任务中发现的显著差异一致;(c)老年人群体中的个体在虚拟公寓Stroop任务中的表现明显比年轻人群体中的参与者差。这些结果表明,虚拟公寓Stroop任务在区分老年人的优势反应抑制和抗干扰抑制方面具有潜力。