Psychological Development and Education ›› 2022, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (1): 26-34.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2022.01.04

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The Effects of Aging on Top-down Attentional Processing under Different Search Situations

WU Xia1,2,3, ZHONG Xiping2, JIANG Yunpeng1,2,3   

  1. 1. Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387;
    2. Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387;
    3. Tianjin Social Science Laboratory of Students'Mental Development and Learning, Tianjin 300387
  • Published:2022-02-17

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Abstract: In visual search, top-down and bottom-up processing can flexibly capture task-relative information and inhibit task-irrelative information according to different search situations. Specifically, the top-down processing can be enhanced when target is a salient stimulus among distractors, while the bottom-up processing can be enhanced when the target is not the salient stimulus. However, it is unclear that whether older people can adopt different attentional processing under different target situations as young people. In order to investigate the effects of aging on the flexibility of attention, the present study employed young and old people to participate a spatial cue target paradigm. Participants were instructed to search for a predefined color target and the target displays were preceded by spatially unpredicted color singleton cues. Color consistency of the distractors (consistent vs. inconsistent) was manipulated to change the salience situations of the target, Matching level of cue and target (task-relative vs. task-irrelative) was manipulated to investigate the top-down and bottom-up processing, Validity of cue (valid vs. invalid) was manipulated to measure the effects of attentional capture and inhibition. Results showed that, for young people, the effects of attentional capture for task-relative cues in salient situation was significantly smaller than that in the non-salient situation, suggesting that the young people can flexibly regulate the attentional processing according to different target situations. However, the result was disappeared for elders, indicating a lack of flexibility with aging. More importantly, the results of the IES (RT/ACC) showed a cue validity effect for the task-relative cue and a reversed cue validity effect for the task-irrelative cue in elder, indicating the remaining effects of attentional capture and inhibition of aging. In sum, the present study reveals that aging can decrease the flexibility of cognitive control, but still can retain the attentional capture for task-relative stimulus and the attentional inhibition for task-irrelative stimulus, which challenges the impaired inhibition ability of aging.

Key words: cognitive aging, top-down processing, attentional capture, attentional inhibition, spatial cue-target paradigm

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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