Age Differences in the Processing of Context Information Is it Age or Is it Performance?

The dual mechanisms of control theory (DMC; Braver & Barch, 2002) assumes that age-related changes in the temporal structure of context processing underlie age differences in numerous cognitive control tasks. Younger adults usually exhibit a proactive control mode, characterized by cue-related context updating, while older adults show a reactive control mode, updating information when interference is detected. This study aimed at determining whether age differences in electrophysiological correlates of context updating in a pro-and reactive manner are independent of individual differences in task performance. To this end, younger and older adults were split into four groups according to their updating efficiency in behavioral data. Nineteen younger and 18 older adults completed a modified AX-Continuous-Performance Task (Lenartowicz, Escobedo-Quiroz, & Cohen, 2010) in which correct responses to probes were either dependent (c-dep) or independent (c-indep) on a preceding contextual cue. Analysis of the behavioral data showed no differences in context updating when performance was matched, that is, between low performing younger and high performing older adults. However, low performing younger adults showed larger cue-locked parietal P3b amplitudes on c-dep than c-indep trials, indicating c-dep trials to require context updating to a larger extent, while high performing older adults exhibited a specific control strategy and continuously updated context information, as reflected in comparable P3b amplitudes on c-dep and c-indep trials. The persistent age effect in the P3b when controlling for performance differences suggests context updating to be fundamental to cognitive aging. High performing in contrast to low performing older adults also showed a larger negative N450 to ambiguous probes on c-dep trials associated with conflict detection. According to the DMC, this finding suggests late conflict detection at the time interference is detected, indicative of a reactive control style particular in high performing elderly.