Age-related dynamics of cognitive control in a cued flanker task

Different stages of stimulus evaluation (“early” feature-level vs. “late” conjunction-level) can be used to respond in a conflict task, with different speed and accuracy outcomes. During a cued flanker task, where cues indicate the probability that an upcoming stimulus will be congruent (75%, 50%, or 25%), participants may use the cue to adjust their processing strategy to rely more on the early or late stages. Relying on early stages results in faster responses but larger behavioral differences between congruent and incongruent trials (congruency effect, CE) than when relying on the later stages. Here we investigated whether flexible strategic adjustments between these two processing modes (congruency expectation effect, CEE) change with age and whether cue-related ERPs reflect variations in strategy selection. Both YA and OA showed a greater CE following the 75% compared to the 50% and 25% cues (CEE), suggesting that when participants expect congruent arrays, they base their response on early stages of stimulus evaluation, making them more sensitive to distractors. However, the size of the CEE did not appear to vary with age. This may reflect the fact that behavioral effects are measured after the imperative stimulus, with ample time for older individuals to show the same level of preparation as younger ones. During the cue interval, the parietal P2 and P3 varied as a function of the cue but did not index strategic variations. Instead, the P2 and P3 were larger for informative (75% and 25%) compared to uninformative (50%) cues. That said, the latency of ERP components elicited by the cues increased as a function of age. In sum, OA can flexibly adjust their processing strategy but have greater difficulty with inhibition and may take longer to react to cues. ERPs during the cue interval reflect the information value of the cues and the speed of their processing, rather than the specific strategy that is being selected.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2025

Author dc:creator

• Chism, Sydney

Contributors dc:contributor

• Fabiani, Monica
• Gratton, Gabriele

• Cognitive control, Aging, Flanker Paradigm, Event-related potentials (ERPs), Congruency Effect (CE), Conflict Expectation Effect (CEE)

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2025 Sydney Chism

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132706

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132706