The Role of Processing Speed and Cognitive Control on Word Retrieval in Aging and Aphasia

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Yasmeen Faroqi-Shah ◽  
Megan Gehman
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Control Word ◽  
Healthy Adults ◽  
Word Retrieval ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Language Deficit

Purpose When speakers retrieve words, they do so extremely quickly and accurately—both speed and accuracy of word retrieval are compromised in persons with aphasia (PWA). This study examined the contribution of two domain-general mechanisms: processing speed and cognitive control on word retrieval in PWA. Method Three groups of participants, neurologically healthy young and older adults and PWA ( n = 15 in each group), performed processing speed, cognitive control, lexical decision, and word retrieval tasks on a computer. The relationship between word retrieval speed and other tasks was examined for each group. Results Both aging and aphasia resulted in slower processing speed but did not affect cognitive control. Word retrieval response time delays in PWA were eliminated when processing speed was accounted for. Word retrieval speed was predicted by individual differences in cognitive control in young and older adults and additionally by processing speed in older adults. In PWA, word retrieval speed was predicted by severity of language deficit and cognitive control. Conclusions This study shows that processing speed is compromised in aphasia and could account for their slowed response times. Individual differences in cognitive control predicted word retrieval speed in healthy adults and PWA. These findings highlight the need to include nonlinguistic cognitive mechanisms in future models of word retrieval in healthy adults and word retrieval deficits in aphasia.

scholarly journals Auditory word recognition across the lifespan

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 119-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrike K. Blumenfeld ◽  
Scott R. Schroeder ◽  
Susan C. Bobb ◽  
Max R. Freeman ◽  
Viorica Marian
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Word Identification ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Auditory Word ◽  
Auditory Word Recognition ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Age Related Changes

Abstract Recent research suggests that bilingual experience reconfigures linguistic and nonlinguistic cognitive processes. We examined the relationship between linguistic competition resolution and nonlinguistic cognitive control in younger and older adults who were either bilingual or monolingual. Participants heard words in English and identified the referent among four pictures while eye-movements were recorded. Target pictures (e.g., cab) appeared with a phonological competitor picture (e.g., cat) and two filler pictures. After each eye-tracking trial, priming probes assessed residual activation and inhibition of target and competitor words. When accounting for processing speed, results revealed that age-related changes in activation and inhibition are smaller in bilinguals than in monolinguals. Moreover, younger and older bilinguals, but not monolinguals, recruited similar inhibition mechanisms during word identification and during a nonlinguistic Stroop task. Results suggest that, during lexical access, bilinguals show more consistent competition resolution and recruitment of cognitive control across the lifespan than monolinguals.

scholarly journals Changing our thinking about changing their thinking in older adulthood

2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 1405-1407
Author(s):  
Viviana M. Wuthrich
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Cognitive Deficits ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Anxiety And Depression ◽  
Cognitive Changes ◽  
Older Adulthood ◽  
New Learning

It is well-established that as people age, deterioration in cognitive abilities including processing speed, memory, and cognitive flexibility occurs, although vast individual differences occur in the rate and consequences of this decline (Christensen, 2001). Anxiety and depression in late life are also associated with specific cognitive deficits in memory and executive functioning that may impact on new learning (Yochim et al., 2013). Therefore, it is possible that cognitive changes make it more difficult for older adults to learn how to change their thinking particularly in the context of psychological therapy.

scholarly journals Linking individual differences in cognitive control and perception: Meta-perception in older and younger adults

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Klever ◽  
Pascal Mamassian ◽  
Jutta Billino
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Age Effects ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Perceptual Performance ◽  
Metacognitive Ability ◽  
Specific Challenge

Visual perception is not only shaped by sensitivity, but also by confidence, i.e. the ability to estimate the accuracy of a visual decision. There is robust evidence that younger observers have access to a reliable measure of their own uncertainty when making visual decisions. This metacognitive ability might be challenged during aging due to increasing sensory noise and decreasing cognitive control resources. We investigated age effects on visual confidence using a confidence forced-choice paradigm. We determined discrimination thresholds for trials in which perceptual judgements were indicated as confident and for those in which they were declined as confident. Younger adults (19-38 years) showed significantly lower discrimination thresholds than older adults (60-78 years). In both age groups, perceptual performance was linked to confidence judgements, but overall results suggest reduced confidence efficiency in older adults. However, we observed substantial variability of confidence effects across all particpants. This variability was closely linked to individual differences in cognitive control capacities, i.e. executive function. Our findings provide evidence for age-related differences in meta-perceptual efficiency that present a specific challenge to perceptual performance in old age. We propose that these age effects are primarily mediated by cognitive control resources, supporting their crucial role for metacognitive efficiency.

scholarly journals Catecholaminergic modulation of the avoidance of cognitive control

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monja I. Froböse ◽  
Jennifer C. Swart ◽  
Jennifer L. Cook ◽  
Dirk E.M. Geurts ◽  
Hanneke E.M. den Ouden ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Task Switching ◽  
Control Process ◽  
Healthy Adults ◽  
Large Sample ◽  
Trait Impulsivity ◽  
Undermining Effect

AbstractThe catecholamines have long been associated with cognitive control and value-based decision-making. More recently, we proposed that the catecholamines might modulate value-based decision-making about whether or not to engage in cognitive control. We test this hypothesis by assessing effects of a catecholamine challenge in a large sample of young, healthy adults (n = 100) on the avoidance of a cognitively demanding control process: task switching. Prolonging catecholamine transmission by blocking reuptake with methylphenidate altered the avoidance, but not the execution of cognitive control. Crucially, these effects could be isolated by taking into account individual differences in trait impulsivity, so that participants with higher trait impulsivity became more avoidant of cognitive control, despite faster task performance. One implication of these findings is that performance-enhancing effects of methylphenidate may be accompanied by an undermining effect on the willingness to exert cognitive control. Taken together, these findings integrate hitherto segregated literatures on catecholamines’ roles in value-based learning/choice and cognitive control.

scholarly journals Age-related differences in network structure and dynamic synchrony of cognitive control

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Hinault ◽  
M. Mijalkov ◽  
J.B. Pereira ◽  
Giovanni. Volpe ◽  
A. Bakker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Network Dynamics ◽  
Network Clustering ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Age Related ◽  
White Matter Microstructure

AbstractCognitive trajectories vary greatly across older individuals, and the neural mechanisms underlying these differences remain poorly understood. Here, we propose a mechanistic framework of cognitive variability in older adults, linking the influence of white matter microstructure on fast and effective communications between brain regions. Using diffusion tensor imaging and electroencephalography, we show that individual differences in white matter network organization are associated with network clustering and efficiency in the alpha and high-gamma bands, and that functional network dynamics partly explain individual cognitive control performance in older adults. We show that older individuals with high versus low structural network clustering differ in task-related network dynamics and cognitive performance. These findings were corroborated by investigating magnetoencephalography networks in an independent dataset. This multimodal brain connectivity framework of individual differences provides a holistic account of how differences in white matter microstructure underlie age-related variability in dynamic network organization and cognitive performance.

scholarly journals Verbal Working Memory in Older Adults: The Roles of Phonological Capacities and Processing Speed

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (6) ◽  
pp. 1520-1532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Nittrouer ◽  
Joanna H. Lowenstein ◽  
Taylor Wucinich ◽  
Aaron C. Moberly
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Serial Recall ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Digit Span ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Age Related

Purpose This study examined the potential roles of phonological sensitivity and processing speed in age-related declines of verbal working memory. Method Twenty younger and 25 older adults with age-normal hearing participated. Two measures of verbal working memory were collected: digit span and serial recall of words. Processing speed was indexed using response times during those tasks. Three other measures were also obtained, assessing phonological awareness, processing, and recoding. Results Forward and reverse digit spans were similar across groups. Accuracy on the serial recall task was poorer for older than for younger adults, and response times were slower. When response time served as a covariate, the age effect for accuracy was reduced. Phonological capacities were equivalent across age groups, so we were unable to account for differences across age groups in verbal working memory. Nonetheless, when outcomes for only older adults were considered, phonological awareness and processing speed explained significant proportions of variance in serial recall accuracy. Conclusion Slowing in processing abilities accounts for the primary trajectory of age-related declines in verbal working memory. However, individual differences in phonological capacities explain variability among individual older adults.

Switching Between Attentional Demands – A Brief Report Comparing Findings from Younger and Older Adults

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-241
Author(s):  
Magnus Liebherr ◽  
Stephanie Antons ◽  
Matthias Brand
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Divided Attention ◽  
Processing Speed ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Common Factor ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Attentional Demands ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Switching Attention

The increasing relevance to adapt quickly to changes in the environment is contrasted by an inverted U-shaped curve of task-switching abilities over the lifespan. While previous studies most commonly focused on switching between rules, modalities, and attributes, the process of switching between different attentional demands is somehow neglected. Therefore, the present study aims to fill this gap by applying a recently introduced paradigm on switching between attentional demands to younger and older adults. Within the present study, 116 younger adults (age: minmax: 18-30, M=22.31 years, SD=3.17; 85 women) and 93 older adults (age: minmax: 60-89, M=68.29 years, SD=6.18; 15 women) completed the Switching Attentional Demands-task (SwAD-task). The task enables to quantify single-task performance of selective and divided attention, but more important the ability of switching between these demands. Findings indicate faster response times in selective attention than divided attention for both groups. Furthermore, older adults showed longer response times in selective attention, divided attention, as well as switching attention, compared to their younger counterparts. Age-related changes are discussed by considering the frontal ageing hypothesis, processing-speed theory, as well as common factor theories of cognitive ageing. Furthermore, previous neurophysiological findings are taken into account to explain findings at hand.

Cognitive control, word retrieval and bilingual aphasia: Is there a relationship?

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 95-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasmeen Faroqi-Shah ◽  
Monica Sampson ◽  
Mariah Pranger ◽  
Susan Baughman
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Control Word ◽  
Word Retrieval ◽  
Bilingual Aphasia
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document