Centre for Policy on Ageing



Age-related equivalence of identity suppression in the Stroop color-word task
Author(s)	James M Kieley, Alan A Hartley
Journal title	Psychology and Aging, vol 12, no 1, March 1997
Pages	pp 22-29
Keywords	Personality ; Mental speed ; Mental health [elderly] ; Age groups [elderly] ; Young adults [20-25] ; Testing ; Correlation ; United States of America.
Annotation	Previous failures to find reliable identity suppression in older adults have led to the conclusion that older adults suffer from an impairment in the inhibitory component of selective attention. Here, two experiments using the Stroop procedure - where the task is to name the colour in which a stimulus appears - found identity suppression in older adults that was both reliable and equivalent to that in younger adults. Experiment 1 with repeated target colours produced correlations consistent with an episodic retrieval explanation of identity suppression. Experiment 2, without repeated targets, produced correlations inconsistent with the episodic retrieval interpretation. These patterns were found for both younger and older adults. No evidence was found for reduced identity suppression that would be consistent with a general inhibitory impairment in older adults.
Accession Number	CPA-971120234 A
Classmark	DK: DG: D: BB: SD6: 3T: 49: 7T
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.