Article

Development of and change in cognitive control: a comparison of children, young adults, and older adults.

New York Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA.
Cognitive Affective & Behavioral Neuroscience (impact factor: 3.57). 04/2009; 9(1):91-102. DOI:10.3758/CABN.9.1.91 pp.91-102
Source: PubMed

ABSTRACT Cognitive control involves adjustments in behavior to conflicting information, develops throughout childhood, and declines in aging. Accordingly, developmental and age-related changes in cognitive control and response-conflict detection were assessed in a response-compatibility task. We recorded performance measures, pre-response time (pre-RT) activity and medial frontal negativity (MFN)-sequentially occurring, putative event-related potential (ERP) indexes, respectively, of cognitive control and response-conflict detection. When response conflict reached the highest levels by requiring incompatible responses on posterror trials, children and older adults showed the greatest performance decrements. ERPs indicated that young adults implemented control (pre-RT) and detected the increased conflict (MFN) only when that conflict was at the highest levels, whereas children and older adults did so at lower levels (e.g., posterror, compatible responses). Consequently, the developmental and age-related performance decrements observed here may be due to the undifferentiated and inefficient manner in which children and older adults recruited the processes associated with both cognitive control and response-conflict detection.

0 0
 · 
0 Bookmarks
 · 
37 Views
  • Article: Does the error negativity reflect response conflict strength? Evidence from a Simon task.
    Hiroaki Masaki, Michael Falkenstein, Birgit Stürmer, Thomas Pinkpank, Werner Sommer
    [show abstract] [hide abstract]
    ABSTRACT: The error (-related) negativity (Ne or ERN) has been related to detecting the mismatch between incorrectly executed and appropriate responses or, alternatively, to the degree of conflict between different response alternatives. In this study different levels of response conflict were generated by manipulating task difficulty in a Simon task. According to the product of incorrect and subsequent correct EMG activation, the amount of conflict in error trials was indeed larger for the easy than for the hard condition. In contrast, Ne/ERN amplitudes did not differ between difficulty conditions, nor was the amount of conflict mirrored by Ne/ERN amplitude. Therefore, the present data are at variance with the hypothesis that the Ne/ERN reflects the degree of response conflict.
    Psychophysiology 08/2007; 44(4):579-85. · 3.29 Impact Factor
Data provided are for informational purposes only. Although carefully collected, accuracy cannot be guaranteed. The impact factor represents a rough estimation of the journal's impact factor and does not reflect the actual current impact factor. Publisher conditions are provided by RoMEO. Differing provisions from the publisher's actual policy or licence agreement may be applicable.

Keywords

age-related changes
 
age-related performance decrements
 
cognitive control
 
compatible responses
 
conflicting information
 
greatest performance decrements
 
incompatible responses
 
increased conflict
 
inefficient manner
 
medial frontal negativity
 
MFN
 
MFN)-sequentially
 
older adults
 
older adults recruited
 
performance measures
 
posterror trials
 
response conflict
 
response-compatibility task
 
response-conflict detection
 
young adults