Cognitive plasticity of inhibition in older adults

Cognitive plasticity has been well documented in the cognitive aging literature; however, little work has been done to investigate the plasticity of inhibition among older adults. Inhibition functions to keep irrelevant information outside the focus of attention, and has been demonstrated to be of central importance to a variety of cognitive abilities known to decline with normal aging (Hasher et al., 2007). Using the Stroop task (Stroop, 1935), 28 older adults were trained across six sessions. Participants were randomly assigned to two feedback groups: summary feedback (SF) and individualized and adaptive feedback (IAF), to evaluate whether the type of feedback provided during training impacted performance gains. Findings indicated that older adults had improved inhibitory performance across sessions regardless of the type of feedback received. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that individuals with slow speed of processing and low executive control benefited the most from inhibition training.