title: Within-session practice eliminates age differences in cognitive control.
abstract: ABSTRACT Previous research employing short-term practice and long-term training have been successful in reducing cognitive control deficits in the elderly. The goal of this study was to examine the effect of practice within session on a demanding cognitive control task. Nineteen older adults and 16 young adults performed 720 trials of a cued version of the Stroop task, in which an instructional cue is presented before each individually presented Stroop stimulus. Statistical analyses focused on the most difficult color-naming condition in task-switching blocks. Overall, participants showed faster reaction times and decreased errors with practice, particularly on incongruent trials. Older adults showed a greater reduction in errors with practice than young adults. Moreover, older adults, but not young adults, showed a reduction in errors and reaction times with practice on incongruent trials. Findings further suggest that practice reduces age-related differences in cognitive control. Improvements in cognitive control functioning has implications for treating functional deficits in older adults.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA. vonetta@phhp.ufl.edu
authors.forename: Vonetta M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Dotson
authors.forename: Christopher N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Sozda
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Marsiske
authors.forename: William M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: Perlstein
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D003071:Cognition; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D057190:Stroop Test