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General Slowing and Education Mediate Task Switching Performance Across the Life-Span
Objective: This study considered the potential role of both protective factors (cognitive reserve, CR) and adverse ones (general slowing) in modulating cognitive flexibility in the adult life-span. Method: Ninety-eight individuals performed a task-switching (TS) paradigm in which we adopted a manipu...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2018
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5945925/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29780341 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00630 |
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author | Moretti, Luca Semenza, Carlo Vallesi, Antonino |
author_facet | Moretti, Luca Semenza, Carlo Vallesi, Antonino |
author_sort | Moretti, Luca |
collection | PubMed |
description | Objective: This study considered the potential role of both protective factors (cognitive reserve, CR) and adverse ones (general slowing) in modulating cognitive flexibility in the adult life-span. Method: Ninety-eight individuals performed a task-switching (TS) paradigm in which we adopted a manipulation concerning the timing between the cue and the target. Working memory demands were minimized by using transparent cues. Additionally, indices of cognitive integrity, depression, processing speed and different CR dimensions were collected and used in linear models accounting for TS performance under the different time constraints. Results: The main results showed similar mixing costs and higher switching costs in older adults, with an overall age-dependent effect of general slowing on these costs. The link between processing speed and TS performance was attenuated when participants had more time to prepare. Among the different CR indices, formal education only was associated with reduced switch costs under time pressure. Discussion: Even though CR is often operationalized as a unitary construct, the present research confirms the benefits of using tools designed to distinguish between different CR dimensions. Furthermore, our results provide empirical support to the assumption that processing speed influence on executive performance depends on time constraints. Finally, it is suggested that whether age differences appear in terms of switch or mixing costs depends on working memory demands (which were low in our tasks with transparent cues). |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5945925 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2018 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-59459252018-05-18 General Slowing and Education Mediate Task Switching Performance Across the Life-Span Moretti, Luca Semenza, Carlo Vallesi, Antonino Front Psychol Psychology Objective: This study considered the potential role of both protective factors (cognitive reserve, CR) and adverse ones (general slowing) in modulating cognitive flexibility in the adult life-span. Method: Ninety-eight individuals performed a task-switching (TS) paradigm in which we adopted a manipulation concerning the timing between the cue and the target. Working memory demands were minimized by using transparent cues. Additionally, indices of cognitive integrity, depression, processing speed and different CR dimensions were collected and used in linear models accounting for TS performance under the different time constraints. Results: The main results showed similar mixing costs and higher switching costs in older adults, with an overall age-dependent effect of general slowing on these costs. The link between processing speed and TS performance was attenuated when participants had more time to prepare. Among the different CR indices, formal education only was associated with reduced switch costs under time pressure. Discussion: Even though CR is often operationalized as a unitary construct, the present research confirms the benefits of using tools designed to distinguish between different CR dimensions. Furthermore, our results provide empirical support to the assumption that processing speed influence on executive performance depends on time constraints. Finally, it is suggested that whether age differences appear in terms of switch or mixing costs depends on working memory demands (which were low in our tasks with transparent cues). Frontiers Media S.A. 2018-05-04 /pmc/articles/PMC5945925/ /pubmed/29780341 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00630 Text en Copyright © 2018 Moretti, Semenza and Vallesi. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Psychology Moretti, Luca Semenza, Carlo Vallesi, Antonino General Slowing and Education Mediate Task Switching Performance Across the Life-Span |
title | General Slowing and Education Mediate Task Switching Performance Across the Life-Span |
title_full | General Slowing and Education Mediate Task Switching Performance Across the Life-Span |
title_fullStr | General Slowing and Education Mediate Task Switching Performance Across the Life-Span |
title_full_unstemmed | General Slowing and Education Mediate Task Switching Performance Across the Life-Span |
title_short | General Slowing and Education Mediate Task Switching Performance Across the Life-Span |
title_sort | general slowing and education mediate task switching performance across the life-span |
topic | Psychology |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5945925/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29780341 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00630 |
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