Interindividual differences in attentional control profiles among younger and older adults

Abstract

This study aimed at characterizing the individual variability in three attentional control functions (shifting, inhibition, and updating), among 75 older and 75 younger adults. It also examined the intellectual and health variables associated with different cognitive profiles. Cluster analyses identified three separate attentional control profiles for both age groups, but the patterns of variability were strikingly different. Younger adults’ profiles were characterized by homogeneous performance across domains and differed only in their overall level of performance. In contrast, older adults’ profiles were characterized by uneven levels of performance across domains and inhibition stood out as critical in distinguishing between profiles. One subgroup of older adults had poor inhibition and more adverse lifestyle characteristics and appeared more cognitively vulnerable. In conclusion, subgroups of younger and older adults with different attentional control profiles can be identified, but the expression of variability changes with age as older adults’ profiles become more heterogeneous.

Keywords:

• aging
• interindividual variability
• shifting
• inhibition
• updating

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Emilie Lepage for her help with recruitment, Samira Mellah, Sophie Benoit, and Emilie Ouellet for their help with recruitment and testing of participants, Amanda De Filippo for editorial assistance, and Francine Giroux for her help with statistical analyses.

Notes

1. The comparison of younger and older adults as groups has been presented in a separate paper. To summarize, younger adults performed significantly better than older adults (after adjustment for multiple comparisons) on the number–letter task (young, M = −2.75, SD = .19; old, M = −2.87, SD = .19), the left–right shifting task (young, M = −2.42, SD = .16; old, M = −2.61, SD = .25), the antisaccade task (young, M = 1.25, SD = .21; old, M = .81, SD = .25), the Stroop task (young, M = −.19, SD = .10; old, M = −.30, SD = .17), the keep-track task (young, M = .78, SD = .13; old, M = .69, SD = .15), and the tone-monitoring task (young, M = .95, SD = .27; old, M = .66, SD = .25). The difference between younger and older adults did not reach statistical significance for the plus–minus task (young, M = −1.36, SD = .25; old, M = −1.41, SD = .29) and the letter-updating task (young, M = .73, SD = .22; old, M = .66, SD = .20). Please see Sylvain-Roy et al. (2014) for full details.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by a grant to SB from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). SSR was supported by scholarships from NSERC and from the Fonds Québécois de Recherche Nature et Technologies.