title: Age-related changes and the attention network task: an examination of alerting, orienting, and executive function.
abstract: The effects of aging on alerting, orienting, and executive function were examined with the use of the Attention Network Task, which combines the Posner spatial cuing task and the Eriksen flanker task into a single procedure. We found that older adults showed significantly less alerting than young adults in response to a warning cue, although there were no age differences in orienting or executive function once processing speed was taken into account. We suggest that age differences in alerting may depend in part upon the presentation duration or persistence of the warning cue.
authors.affiliation: Wake Forest University, Department of Psychology, Winston-Salem, North Carolina 27109, USA. jenningj@wfu.edu
authors.forename: Janine M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Jennings
authors.forename: Dale
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dagenbach
authors.forename: Christine M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Engle
authors.forename: Laura J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Funke
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012720:Severity of Illness Index