Aging Research Center, Karolinska Institute.
Psychol Aging. 2017 Dec;32(8):722-731. doi: 10.1037/pag0000204.
The inability to suppress irrelevant information has been suggested as a primary cause of proactive interference (PI), and this deficit may be enhanced in aging. The current study examines age differences and temporal boundaries of PI, by manipulating lure distances in a verbal 2-back working memory task. Both younger and older adults showed effects of interference for proximal 3- and 4-back lures, and this effect was greater for older adults. Whereas younger adults showed less interference during 4-back compared to 3-back lures, in both reaction times and accuracy, older adults improved only in accuracy. For distant lures, when the time between the 1st presentation of an item to its reappearance as a lure item was longer (e.g., 5- to 10-back lures), younger adults were no longer affected by PI. However, older adults were affected by PI throughout all distant lures, up to the most distant lure (9-/10-back). The results suggest that older adults were less successful in resolving interference from both proximal and distant familiar lures. Further, younger adults were able to overcome the effects of PI completely after a specific lure distance. The age differences in temporal properties of PI may therefore highlight a unique component linked to impaired interference control and aging. (PsycINFO Database Record
无法抑制无关信息被认为是前摄干扰（PI）的主要原因，而这种缺陷在衰老过程中可能会加剧。本研究通过在言语 2 -back 工作记忆任务中操纵诱饵距离，考察了 PI 的年龄差异和时间边界。年轻和年长的成年人在近侧 3-和 4-回诱饵中都表现出干扰的效果，而年长的成年人的干扰效果更大。而年轻的成年人在 4-回和 3-回诱饵之间的反应时间和准确性上表现出较少的干扰，但年长的成年人仅在准确性上有所提高。对于远距离的诱饵，当项目的第一次出现与其作为诱饵项目再次出现之间的时间间隔较长（例如，5-回和 10-回诱饵）时，年轻的成年人不再受到 PI 的影响。然而，年长的成年人在所有远距离的诱饵中都受到 PI 的影响，直到最远距离的诱饵（9-回/10-回）。研究结果表明，年长的成年人在解决近侧和远距离熟悉诱饵的干扰方面不太成功。此外，年轻的成年人在特定的诱饵距离后能够完全克服 PI 的影响。因此，PI 的时间特性中的年龄差异可能突出了与干扰控制和衰老有关的一个独特成分。
