title: Relational integration, inhibition, and analogical reasoning in older adults.
abstract: The difficulty of reasoning tasks depends on their relational complexity, which increases with the number of relations that must be considered simultaneously to make an inference, and on the number of irrelevant items that must be inhibited. The authors examined the ability of younger and older adults to integrate multiple relations and inhibit irrelevant stimuli. Young adults performed well at all but the highest level of relational complexity, whereas older adults performed poorly even at a medium level of relational complexity, especially when irrelevant information was presented. Simulations based on a neurocomputational model of analogical reasoning, Learning and Inference with Schemas and Analogies (LISA), suggest that the observed decline in reasoning performance may be explained by a decline in attention and inhibitory functions in older adults.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563, USA. indre@ucla.edu
authors.forename: Indre V
authors.initials: IV
authors.lastname: Viskontas
authors.forename: Robert G
authors.initials: RG
authors.lastname: Morrison
authors.forename: Keith J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Holyoak
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Hummel
authors.forename: Barbara J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Knowlton
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000465:Algorithms; D001288:Attention; D003118:Color Perception; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008875:Middle Aged; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011340:Problem Solving; D011930:Reaction Time; D012016:Reference Values; D012917:Social Adjustment