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A large-scale analysis of task switching practice effects across the lifespan
An important feature of human cognition is the ability to flexibly and efficiently adapt behavior in response to continuously changing contextual demands. We leverage a large-scale dataset from Lumosity, an online cognitive-training platform, to investigate how cognitive processes involved in cued s...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
National Academy of Sciences
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6731761/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31427513 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1906788116 |
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author | Steyvers, Mark Hawkins, Guy E. Karayanidis, Frini Brown, Scott D. |
author_facet | Steyvers, Mark Hawkins, Guy E. Karayanidis, Frini Brown, Scott D. |
author_sort | Steyvers, Mark |
collection | PubMed |
description | An important feature of human cognition is the ability to flexibly and efficiently adapt behavior in response to continuously changing contextual demands. We leverage a large-scale dataset from Lumosity, an online cognitive-training platform, to investigate how cognitive processes involved in cued switching between tasks are affected by level of task practice across the adult lifespan. We develop a computational account of task switching that specifies the temporal dynamics of activating task-relevant representations and inhibiting task-irrelevant representations and how they vary with extended task practice across a number of age groups. Practice modulates the level of activation of the task-relevant representation and improves the rate at which this information becomes available, but has little effect on the task-irrelevant representation. While long-term practice improves performance across all age groups, it has a greater effect on older adults. Indeed, extensive task practice can make older individuals functionally similar to less-practiced younger individuals, especially for cognitive measures that focus on the rate at which task-relevant information becomes available. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6731761 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | National Academy of Sciences |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-67317612019-09-18 A large-scale analysis of task switching practice effects across the lifespan Steyvers, Mark Hawkins, Guy E. Karayanidis, Frini Brown, Scott D. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Social Sciences An important feature of human cognition is the ability to flexibly and efficiently adapt behavior in response to continuously changing contextual demands. We leverage a large-scale dataset from Lumosity, an online cognitive-training platform, to investigate how cognitive processes involved in cued switching between tasks are affected by level of task practice across the adult lifespan. We develop a computational account of task switching that specifies the temporal dynamics of activating task-relevant representations and inhibiting task-irrelevant representations and how they vary with extended task practice across a number of age groups. Practice modulates the level of activation of the task-relevant representation and improves the rate at which this information becomes available, but has little effect on the task-irrelevant representation. While long-term practice improves performance across all age groups, it has a greater effect on older adults. Indeed, extensive task practice can make older individuals functionally similar to less-practiced younger individuals, especially for cognitive measures that focus on the rate at which task-relevant information becomes available. National Academy of Sciences 2019-09-03 2019-08-19 /pmc/articles/PMC6731761/ /pubmed/31427513 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1906788116 Text en Copyright © 2019 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Social Sciences Steyvers, Mark Hawkins, Guy E. Karayanidis, Frini Brown, Scott D. A large-scale analysis of task switching practice effects across the lifespan |
title | A large-scale analysis of task switching practice effects across the lifespan |
title_full | A large-scale analysis of task switching practice effects across the lifespan |
title_fullStr | A large-scale analysis of task switching practice effects across the lifespan |
title_full_unstemmed | A large-scale analysis of task switching practice effects across the lifespan |
title_short | A large-scale analysis of task switching practice effects across the lifespan |
title_sort | large-scale analysis of task switching practice effects across the lifespan |
topic | Social Sciences |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6731761/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31427513 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1906788116 |
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