Abstract
Recent evidence from memory paradigms indicates that older adults can sometimes benefit more from processing goal-irrelevant information than younger adults, however these studies have often failed to simultaneously provide evidence of age-related control deficits. In the present experiments, participants initially studied a list of words. They then received a color-naming Stroop task where neutral words were either previously studied or new words. Across three experiments, participants were given different types of memory tests to examine the lingering effects of the neutral words during color-naming in younger and older adults. The results from all three experiments (including an attempted replication study) yielded no evidence that older adults were more likely than younger adults to store the unattended neutral words in memory.
Committee Chair
David Balota
Committee Members
Julie Bugg, Janet Duchek
Degree
Master of Arts (AM/MA)
Author's Department
Psychology
Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
Winter 12-1-2018
Language
English (en)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7936/8584-xs85
Recommended Citation
Nicosia, Jessica, "The Consequences of Processing of Goal-Irrelevant Information during the Stroop Task in Younger and Older Adults" (2018). Arts & Sciences Theses and Dissertations. 1682.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.7936/8584-xs85
Comments
Permanent URL: https://doi.org/10.7936/8584-xs85