The proposed research is motivated by a recent model of age-related declines in cognitive functioning that assumes (a) that control over the contents of working memory is central to efficient cognitive functioning; (b) that such control involves the inhibition of irrelevant thoughts; and (c) because of reduced or sluggish inhibitory mechanisms, older adults are less able than younger adults to keep task-unrelated thoughts out of working memory with profound consequences for comprehension and memory. Here, the general validity of the model and its usefulness in accounting for age related differences in components of discourse processing are assessed. As such, two lines of work are proposed: one focusing on the major attentional assumption of the model - where several questions are asked including the degree to which task and strategic variables influence suppression. It also is concerned to establish the sources of age differences versus constancies between suppression that operates on the identity of a distractor versus suppression that operates on the location of a distractor. The second line focuses on the positive and negative implications for comprehension and speech production of the diminished attentional control that older adults have over the access of irrelevant information to working memory. The proposed experiments will use cross-sectional designs to compare the performance of younger (18-30 yrs) and older (63-75 yrs) adults on a variety of timed experimental tasks, including basic reaction time, reading, and decision making. As well, cued speech production will be used. To the extent that the proposed model is confirmed, the findings will extend our general understanding of cognitive deficits in aging with the possibility of extensions across broad range of cognitive domains. Also, to the extent that the results increase our understanding of older adults' limitations in processing discourse, they will have direct application to daily life, especially with respect to the issue of how best to present important information (e.g., about health and safety) to older adults.
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