Cognitive Inhibition Theories and Neuropsychological Measures: A Study on Younger and Older Adults

This study aims to examine if younger and older adults have the same influences in terms of information processing speed and cognitive inhibition between tests or outcome views. It also analyzes if the information processing speed could be influenced by non-clinical anxiety levels and other factors. The study uses successive theories in the psychopathic field using different tests to see if the results will have similarity or relevancy to expected hypothetical assumptions.

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Aim of the study
1. The aim of the study was to be able to examine if the younger and older adults
have the same influences in terms of information processing speed and
cognitive inhibition between tests or outcome views
2. It was also to be able to analyze if the information processing speed could be
influenced by non-clinical anxiety levels and other factors which includes
gender, years of education, subjective memory function and objective
cognitive function.
3. The study aimed at using successive theories in the psychopathic field using
different tests to see if the results will have similarity or relevancy to expected
hypothetical assumptions.
Introduction
In order to reduce confounding of variables to determine the incidence and natural
history of a condition through use of the best method such as processing speed, influences as
well as similarity of results. More to that, there number of confounding can be infinite and
thus using the same people from the same population where they are a lot of similarities in
variables, ultimately help in achieving results or outcomes that are the same for each test.
Different in population can affect the outcome as some external influences such as
medication and mood may contribute to selective bias.
Inhibitory control or response inhibition is primarily a cognitive behaviour that allows
people to inhibit their impulses; these impulses are the result of natural or dominant responses
to their peripheral stimuli to choose the most appropriate response (Aron, 2007). Inhibition
may occur in many aspects of the brain function from vision, attention and even VIS. The
selected response must be consistent with their critical thoughts and completion of goals. For
instance, Aron (2007) explains that successful suppression of natural response to control

craving needs the active application of inhibitory cognitive control. Loss of inhibitory
cognitive control occurs when an individual loses the ability to inhibit certain emotions or
behaviours; this often leads to an increase in sexual aggression, reduced sensitivity and
empathy, and sociopathic thoughts and actions (Crawford et al., 2002).
The daily behaviors determine the inhibitory control. The ability of persons to fit in
the environments and cope up with distractions and the unexpected changes largely depend
on inhibition. It is for this reason that assessment of inhibitory control is helpful in most of
the environments. Overtime, there have been studies done on aging and cognition and how
they have led to decrease in the working memory processes in the manner of attentional
control, efficiently. A study using fMRI measures in attentional control of the Stroop word
color method showed responsiveness in adults to be decreasing as when compared to the
younger. This reduced the attentional control leading to a conclusion that there is presence of
impairment of attentional in the older participants. This is due to the fact that the activation of
visual processing regions took much longer when compared to the younger participants. The
decrease un activation of processing regions of the ventral visual and anterior inferior
prefrontal cortices, decreased one’s ability in processing of irrelevant information for any
task. The working memory is able to maintain representations of task demands which are
important in processing responsible attention in selecting the task relevant for representation
as well as actions. Selective attention is able to limit contest of working memory to those that
are relevant to the task. It also aids in prioritization of content.
Through the measurement, it is possible to know if a one is distracted or they are
showcasing behaviors or anger issues. In the medical fields, measurement and assessments of
inhibition it is possible to know if a patient portrays suicidal tendencies as well as poor
inhibition and information processing speed. Being that there are a lot of different types of
inhibitions, the study places key interest in the Simon, Stroop and go/no go task in examining

the performance of inhibitory performances in executive brain functions when a load
increases between psychopathic traits. They also analyze the response between healthy
participants as well as the speed to which the response to stimulus is made, when the
response effectors are compatible to target stimulus spatial location. The various aspects also
help in determining cognitive response latency in congruent and incongruent trials in naming
of colored ink words.
In the professional areas, the assessment helps the police, soldiers as well as other
professionals to handle weapons and other dangerous weapons for them to avoid accidents
(Wood, Mathews & Dalgleish, 2001). To assess the inhibition, Test of Variables of Attention
(TOVA) and the Stroop Test are applied. Apart from inhibition, the tests also measure the
response time, the time of speed, how fast one can shift, the hand and eye coordination and
updating. This creates relevancy between of responses between the two age groups and
assists in understanding various states of responses to cognitive inhibition between the same
age groups as well.
Inhibition in neuroscience.
According to Smith (1992) the term inhibition has been in use in the neuroscience
field since the 19th century. It’s understood differently; be it the governing mechanism of
behavioral output, the circuits in the brain, and lastly, enzyme and cellular firing. Early
scientific research also showed the influence of central nervous output on motor output
amongst other body organs, as previously related, had decreased and continues to decrease.
Being that some neurons in the brain are inhibitors, if some GABA (Gamma-aminobutyric
acid) with some neurons become active and its released across the cleft, it can induce
inhibitors against the neuron. When the neuron is inhibited at that level, it affects the circuits
as well as the body system too.

Inhibition in psychology
Sherrington, fraud, Pavlov, William James, Eysenck, and others (Smith 1995,
Dempster and Brainerd, 1995), set the development of influential theories among them the
concept of inhibition in diversification of phenomena such as mental development in a child’s
cerebral cortex. They alluded to the fact that the cerebral cortex develops in order to be able
to suppress impulses of the subcortical ganglia. Similarly, in the learning field, they implied
that when inhibition is no longer accompanied by unconditioned stimulus, the learning
inhibition is able to develop under conditioned stimulus. More to that, they also expressed
that physic repression; such as traumatic events, were removed from the mind through
inhibition mechanism in its active form. In today’s psychology, there is a difference between
willed and active inhibitors. Looking at lateral inhibition where increase of more evidence on
one representation leads to decrease in another, the winner is able to take all representations
an example includes memory.
According to Cohen and Miller (2001) Cognitive control or executive function as
otherwise known is or are higher order function optimizers that also schedule lower ones. The
prefrontal cortex is regarded to as the source of control for optimization with the posterior
cortical being responsible for the target control together with the subcortical regions. To
ascertain the functionality of cognitive control then experimental studies are taken up with
certain measures such as ant saccade latencies, portent latencies, percent recall and stimulus
response being considered. To many authors, sensory, visual, auditory distractors, unwanted
memories, painful emptions, incompatible manuals, vocal and occur responses are all under
play of inhibitors. Using neuropsychiatry, impaired inhibition can be explained in terms of
impulsivity, perseveration, mania, obsessions, attention defections, posttraumatic stress and
aggression among others lieu stress disorders and poor judgement and decision making.

In an environment that is full of information, selection is credited to increase of
inhibitors or amplification of selective attention. Facilitation dissipated through time can also
assist with the headset of decision making and thus causing a priming effect between the
vailed options. In terms of cognitive control contributions to inhibition, the first argument is
based on the fact that without inhibition, there would be too much information swamping the
brain. Another theory argues that without inhibition, there wouldn’t be much of a resistance
to inappropriate urges. According to Tipper (2001), research has shown action deprived from
visual processes with little conscious intention, to which if inhibition is placed, then there
would be less haphazard actions. Therefore, the difference between latency and action is
dependent on the ability of agents to inhibit the inflow of information. Harnischfeger. 1995r
terms the cognitive inhibition as suppression of previously activated cognitive constants,
clearing of irrelevant actions from consciousness and resistance to interfaces from the same
content. This different to behavioral inhibition which includes resistance to temptations and
impulse control amongst others.
Looking at small children and adults suffering from frontal brain damage, there was
an observation by Lhermitte 1983 of patients grabbing into whatever they saw before term as
a way of preventing motion system from inappropriate triggering. The color inhibition theory
by Gregory suggests that a special performance of the computer resulted to color patterns on
a computer screen. Thus, an action is placed by a small child to choose one item instead of
another, is associated to poor mechanism development for choosing in case of conflict or
amplification of relevant response or storing of relevant instruction in one memory.
According to Morton and Munkata (2002), lack of sufficient strength to overcome tendencies
to search of one thing instead of another is due to the lack of sufficient knowledge strength to
support the right choice. Negative priming which is a resultant of delay of time to select a

new target has been attributed to inhibition of selective attention in grounds that are
challenged.
The Stroop effect or the inhibitors have been refuted to be associated with purposeful
forgetting. Researchers such as Macleod attribute inhibitors to confusion to which they place
routine memory to solve conflicts between two different choices of decision with
performance costs as the neutral terms of describing the data. Though there isn’t that much
research surrounding, presence of active inhibitors in cognitive control, there are assumptions
to part of the brain influencing others through suppression or amplification of processes.
Through fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), metabolic demand of coupled
neurocognitive brain processes are measured. The resolutions are several seconds though
there is hope that the it will improve with advancement of technology. The resolution makes
the MRI method unreliable.
A neuropsychological measure of cognitive inhibition has been addressed by Reinhard et al.,
(2017); changes in the humans’ neurological structure and memory function is significantly
linked to the process of aging. These changes in the neurological structure describe the
decline in the efficiency of information processing in the working memory and other tasks
that require executive functions such as inhibitory control. Therefore, a Neuropsychological
measure of cognitive inhibition is used to assess how changes in pre-clinical cognitive
abilities are affected by factors such as age, gender and mental health of individuals. There
are different types of tests and they include Processing Test REST-INH, Equivalencies Test
INH-REST, and Inattention Test FOCUS-SHIF.
In this study, specific brain function of the inhibition was measured using some
computer-based tasks, which were: Go/No Go task, Simon task, and the Stroop task to
determine the cognitive inhibition in the individuals. The Go/No Go task is made up of three

conditions; GO RTs, NoGo Errors and Go Errors. Thus, the response time measured from
this task, errors of commission and errors of omission measure the cognitive inhibition of
both young and older people. The Simon task measures the speed of information processing
through identification of stimulus, selection of response and execution of response (Casey et
al., 1997). This task has two conditions – compatible and incompatible conditions which
measure cognitive inhibition. Lastly, the Stroop task measures the speed and accuracy when
conflicting information is provided as stimuli, in this case where the color of the text and the
word meaning differ or are in conflict with each other. There are two types of Stroop Tasks -
Word and Color - each task has three conditions (congruent, incongruent and neutral). The
Go/No Go task, Simon task, and the Stroop task are discussed in detail in the methods
section.
Literature Review
Cognitive Inhibition Theories
For almost a decade, the term inhibition has been applied to many different aspects of brain
function. The meanings range from the mechanisms that guide and govern behavioural output
and extend to the circuits that exist between the brain regions, to cellular firing to enzymes
(Aron, 2007). From the physiological experiments that were done in the early days, it
emerged that inhibition is more of a simple reflex. Studies conducted ahead of time have been
proven difficult in understanding the interdependence between cognitive functions and
cognitive deficits within the elderly. (>60years). The studies conducted have been aimed at
understanding inf the decline in the working memory is to be attributed to deficits or
impairments in the working memory functions such as storage, as opposed to impairment
related processes such as selection process of representations. More studies have leaned
towards the later especially for the ages 60-75 years, due to the disruption of task relevant
information (West, 199a, May et al., 1999). West (1999a) found out that when the elderly

tried in retaining location of a target stimulus, visual impaired distractors impaired
performance than those in younger children. He therefore sought to conclude that agree
related decreases in inhabitation of irrelevant information was due to the reduction of speed
which the elderly encode information in the working memory. May et.al. (1999) found out
that the susceptibility towards proactive interference, were influenced more in the working
memory due to the changes in attentional mechanisms as opposed to decrease in storage
capacity. She concluded that negative priming; increase of inhibition failures, decreased
efficiency of attention in retrieval mechanisms between relevant and irrelevant information.
This was credited to the decrease in inhibitory function in as one’s ages increases. Hasher and
Zacks (1988) argued that with ageing, a decrease in the rain’s ability to prevent entrance of
irrelevant information to the working memory, suppression of irrelevant information and non-
target presentation, and inhibition of inappropriate responses is limited. Being that neural
activity within the processing systems is responsible for task-relevant information, there
needs to be an amplification so as to increase processing of the task relevant information
while the vice-versa happens to interferences. There is also a dampening of activation of
irrelevant information to a task through modulations since they could interfere with the
working storage memory and also maintenance processes.
Studies have shown that when concertation is placed on patterns alterations in the prefrontal
cotes during a working memory to contribute to lesser activities in younger adults than the
elderly.
When it comes to the older adults, the structures that support attentional control may be
unaffected relatively but the attentional network within which functional connectivity and
interactions between regions decrease. Cabeza et. Ala. (1997) argued that there was a
decrease between prefrontal cortex and partial cortex with aging. For this kind of allegations
and theories to be proved, the Stroop task is the simplest and most powerful way of relating

the changes in substrates.
After showing the reflex inhibition and central inhibition in the brain, the neurophysiologists
set the stage for the development of the highly influential theories of the mind. Such theories
include those that were done by Freud, Pavlov, Eysenck and William James (Aron, 2007).
The authors used the concept of inhibition to explain the several diverse things. Some of the
things explained included the mental development and phenomenon of extinction in learning.
In this development, it is argued that the cerebral cortex develops to inhibit the powerful
impulses of the deep-seated subcortical ganglia. In explaining the phenomenon of extinction
in learning, it is argued that inhibition develops when the conditioned stimulus gets to a point
where it is not again accompanied by the unconditioned stimulus which it was originally
paired with. The third issue is psychic repression of memory where the bad experiences such
as abuse are pushed out of the conscious section of mind using the active mechanism of
inhibition (Aron, 2007).
Some theorists in this field have developed models that feature mental resources
which might be allocated to operations involved in information processing, reporting and
retaining. This implies that the working memory of humans and various areas of the brain are
responsible for the limited mental capacity or resources that are responsible in determining
what is irrelevant and what is relevant in the working memory. Moreover, information
selection speed, based on the cognitive ability of individuals, is dependent on age, gender and
anxiety levels. Harnishfeger (1995) observes that younger people have higher information
selection speed than older people; additionally, people with high levels of anxiety process
information at a faster speed than individuals with low anxiety levels. These observations are
identical to selective attention and word recognition.
Non-clinical anxiety levels, depression and cognitive inhibition

Anxiety levels and depression are associated with an impaired cognitive function in
humans. Various studies have been conducted to explore the effect of anxiety and depression
on the ability of humans to control their cognitive function. For instance, Ng et al (2012)
explored the dissociating effects of clinical anxiety levels and depression on the cognitive
ability of humans based on natural stimuli; this study found that the levels of anxiety and
depression significantly affect. As the anxiety levels impair cognitive control, there is no
adequate evidence to indicate if there is any variation of this effect between the old and
young individuals. Most studies in this field focus on the link between anxiety levels and
cognitive impairment in old adults or aging people. Tales and Basoudan (2016) explore how
anxiety causes cognitive impairment in old adults, especially among individuals living with
dementia. Tales and Basoudan (2016) further explains how non-clinical anxiety significance
influence on the aspects of information processing might have such as speed and ability
among the ageing individuals; this shows that the disadvantageous effects of anxiety are not
only dependent on clinical anxiety but can also be described by factors such as trait anxiety
and state anxiety. There is no adequate evidence that compares or differentiates the effect of
subclinical anxiety levels on cognitive control and information processing speed between the
young and old individuals.
Clinical anxiety levels and inhibitory control are interrelated (Delphin-Combe et al.,
2016). Inhibitory control overrides natural or habitual responses to achieve specific goals
(Malenka, Nestler, & Hyman, 2009). In addition to inhibitory control, individuals may face
distractions in the form of visual or auditory repercussions. Lack of inhibitory control may
lead to greater anxiety and vice versa. Nonclinical anxiety can thus influence the poorer
performance of inhibitory control. The studies of Grillon et al. (2016) shed light on the
difference in the levels of anxiety faced by older and younger individuals. This study reports
that younger people are more anxious, while older adults are more prone to depression.

Younger individuals perform better than older people in inhibitory control. For instance, in
cognitive inhibition tasks, younger people are likely to have a lower response time than older
individuals; young people have a higher speed in processing of information as compared to
older individuals.
Cognitive steer over unwanted instances or stimuli is set by specific tasks or
memories. The frontal lobe damage in anxiety induces impulsivity, distractibility, and
perseveration due to the damage made to the inhibitory mechanism. The link between
perceived and actual memory and information processing pace are critical portions of
metacognitive processes. These processes are perceptions of difficulty that is yet to be
recognized in the context of human mind. Research is also suggesting that people with
anxiety are less capable of inhibiting their abilities to process information based on anxiety
levels than the average person (Najmi et al., 2015). However, the prominent studies in these
issues have focused on clinical anxiety and its treatments. Although clinical anxiety is a
critical health ailment, the concepts of sub-clinical and nonclinical anxiety must not be
overruled entirely. Based on the dire need to determine the differences between the young
and older adults in the relationship between subclinical anxiety levels and information
processing speed, this research has a potential to shed more light upon the issue of non-
clinical anxiety in both young and older adults. Moreover, the findings of this study explain
the cognitive performance of both young and old adults based on their levels of anxiety and
depression about factors such as gender, years of education, objective and subjective
cognitive functions.
Subjective and objective cognitive function and cognitive inhibition
According to Joorman (2010), cognitive inhibition is a basic method through which
emotion of persons are controlled. Deficits in inhibition of any negative material are seriously

linked to the increase in anxiety levels. Additionally, when individuals show negative moods
they end up having cognitive inhibition and their sad mood deepen. The effect is much
evident in the old people as compared to the young ones. The reason for the clarity in the
difference is because the old people tend to have more of anxiety and depression disorders
hence they end up being at risk of preventing the negative material that may find their way to
their working memory (Gotlib & Joorman, 2010). While establishing the predictors of
objective and subjective functioning among the patients, Gehring et al., (2015) establishes
that objective cognitive inhibition is predominant in persons who have lower education, those
of old age and the male gender. On the other hand, the persons with low subjective cognitive
function is linked to the female gender.
Related factors that could influence the cognitive inhibition
Age and Gender
Inhibitory self-control is an executive function that is crucial for mature adult behavior.
Inhibitory motor control can be measured in the laboratory by using different measures to
evaluate the ability to restrain or withdraw a motor response. Based on the literature,
cognitive inhibition is associated with psychosocial factors and an increased risk for brain
function problems in the adulthood and old age. However, age and sex differences in
cognitive inhibition experiments in relation to non-clinical anxiety levels have been largely
overlooked in the literature. In the current research, sex and age will be examined as a
potential factor influencing cognitive inhibiting processes, attention shifting and inhibitory
control alongside non-clinical anxiety levels, subjective and objective function.
Years of Education

Examining the effect of years of education on cognitive inhibition, there are no studies that
have delved into the area. To date, there is no clear effect that years of one’s education has on
cognitive inhibition.

Part one: Go/NoGo Task
Go no go task evaluates inhibitory performances in executive functions as a load increases
between psychopathic traits. It also analyses the response inhibition as in healthy participants.
As the load increases, the inhibitory decreases. High scores in a Barratt Impulsivity scale is
used in prediction of poor inhibitory ability in the PGNP. High scores predict higher response
to inhibition with more loads on the ho-no/go tasks and vice versa applies. The PGNG is
sensitive to the inhibition response in contact of highly impulsive populations and its used as
a utility as a measure of impulsivity.
Methods
The methods used in this section were similar to those outlined in Chapter 2 of this thesis,
with the same set of participants and Ethical considerations
Go/NoGo Task
The Go/NoGo task refers to a test principle that employs a binary classification (pass
or fail). A participant passes this test when only the Go condition is achieved and fails when
the No/Go condition is met. This task is used in psychology to measure the capacity of
participants to sustain attention and respond to stimuli. For instance, a task that requires
participants to identify two images and inhibit the action after being exposed to a different
stimuli. This task has two major conditions; Go and No/Go conditions. It measures the
response times for identifying ‘Go’ image and ’No/Go’ image – the duration it takes for
participants to respond to the requirements of specific conditions. The response that is faster
than 150ms or above than 1000ms were not included in the analysis.
This task presents the participant with one of two images, a ‘Go’ image and a ‘NoGo’
image. Participants were asked to press the space bar when they see the ‘Go’ image but do
nothing when they see the ‘NoGo’ image. Figure 5 illustrates these directions. Participants
received feedback informing them if their response was incorrect during the Go/NoGo task

trials. Participants also practiced their responses for the Go/NoGo task up to five times prior
to beginning data collection. Data collected in the Go/NoGo task included the response time
of the participants and their accuracy in pressing or not pressing the space bar; the response
times, commission error and omission errors and IIVRT were recorded for every trial made by
participants. A total of 100 trials that were randomly presented in this task were completed
with 3 seconds per trial. The duration of this task was approximately 5 minutes in all.
Figure 5: Instructions for the Go/NoGo Task
Results
With increase in task demand and addition of executive functions, the set shifting an meta
updating was facilitated, the hypothesis was based on increase of load to basic requirement in
inhibition which would lead to reduced capacity in inhibition of prepotency respondence. The
PGNG showed that increase in loads, reaction and dispersion time would increase with
participants ability to inhibit responses decreasing. The measure on inhibitory ability shoed
inversion precision through cognitive complexity subscale.
Conclusion

The absence of significant relationship when analysis response inhibition to PPI-R factor
results to serious decision about sample is enabled results. PGNG analyzes measures of
impulsivity, psychopathy and task demands. The results how just how much the PGNG is
sensitive to individual difference in response inhibition. It serves as a utility measure to
underlying associations of functions and capacity that is taxed by the tasks.

Part Two: Simon Task
Introduction
There is a need for the participants in the Simon task to indicate the colour of target
stimulus with ignorance being placed to the spatial location. The task measures the speed of
response to stimulus and if the response effectors are compatible when compared to spatial
location of the target stimulus. There is a high placed in ignoring the spatial location of
irrelevant information and following with relevant information. Taking a study at the
efficiency of bilinguals in ignoring irrelevant information, is analysed using Simon task.
This is due to the fact the process is more accurate and faster on congruent trials if
and when the stimulus location is on the same side as the response key. Responses are less
accurate and even more slower in the incongruity trials due to the fact that the stimulus
location and response key are in different locations. The difference between congruent trials
and incongruent trials is the response time. This is known as the immune effect as Hedge &
Marsh concluded.
According to De Jong, Ling and Lauber, (1994) theories, if there is a fast route of
response selection, there responses are activated in a spatially correspondent attribute of the
stimulus location. Such stimulus dissipates fast in time. When a slow indirect route is used,
then this s due to activation of task -relevant stimulus that is colour attributed. Simon task
offers more non-linguistic response to tasks in bilingual cognitive studies. And thus, they
offer more advantages. Its accuracy is largely placed on reaction time data and accuracy.
Methods
Simon task
The Simon task refers to a test that finds the reaction times when stimuli occur in a
similar location as the participants’ response. It measures the speed of information processing

through identification of stimulus, selection of response and execution of response. This task
has two conditions – compatible and incompatible conditions which measures cognitive
inhibition. Moreover, this task explores the reaction times in compatible and incompatible
conditions, Simon task effect and IIRTV. Thus, any responses are faster than natural RT, i.e.
150ms or above than 1000ms are not included in analysis.
It presented participants with a series of coloured arrows. If the arrow was green,
participants were asked to press the ‘m’ key on the keyboard as fast and accurate as they
could. If the arrow key was red, participants were asked to press the ‘z’ keyas quickly and
accurate as they could. On keyboard, the ‘m’ key was most easily accessible to the right
hand; the ‘z’ key most easily accessible to the left hand. The key pressed was not based on
the direction the arrow pointed. Two types of conditions were conducted in the Simon task.
In the ‘compatible’ condition, red arrows always appeared on the left side of the visual field,
and the ‘z’ key was the correct response; green arrows always appeared on the right, and the
‘m’ key was the correct response. In ‘incompatible’ condition, the arrow was presented on the
opposite side of the visual field compared to the location of the correct response key, i.e.,
green arrows were presented on the opposite side of the visual field from the correct response
key. Figure 6 illustrates these two types of responses. A total of 50 trials were randomly
presented, each presenting the stimulus for 5 seconds. Data collected in the Simon Task
included response time and accuracy, along with an identification of whether the trial was a
compatible or an incompatible trial. Participants were allowed to practice the Simon Task up
to five times prior to beginning the data collection trials. Participants received feedback on
the accuracy of their responses for this test as well.
Figure 6: Examples of compatible and incompatible trials in the Simon Task

In general, the expectation is that RTs will be faster in compatible condition, where the arrow
points to the same side as the correct response key, with slower RTs in incompatible
condition where the arrow points away from the correct response key. The Simon Effect
score is determined when a response is slower to the LEFT when it appears on RHS of the
screen – response is slower in the incompatible condition than in the compatible condition.
Results and Discussion.
In comparing the accuracy and reaction time of data between monolingual and
bilingual participants, there was evidence accumulation in terms of responses by use od a
modelling approach. From the task, there was indication to performance between bilingual
and monolingual amongst the young adults being similar. There was contrast in decision
processing between the language groups where the bilinguals had larger drift rates which was
due to the faster evidence accumulation for the response execution. By exposing the
participants to multiple stimulus, the reach to touch paradigm was established. Being that
reaching the expected rituals is ambiguous with respect to isolating response activation from
direct route or cognitive trials, then reaching responses in incongruent trials was bimodal.
This was due to the incorrect direction in reaching wrong stimulus as well as correct direction
in reaching to the correct response later in vying time of the stimulus. With increases in
viewing time, the interference situation would be resolved. The racing of responses for the
neutral trials was represented with response activation in the correct direction for
monolinguals and response activation for cognitive route for task-relevant information in a
direct route. It was evident that bilinguals needed more time in stimulus viewing time in order
Compatible Trials
Arrow on same side as
response key
Incompatible Trials
Arrow on opposite side as
response key

to initiative movement as compared to monolinguals. However, despite taking more time to
initiate movement in the wrong direction, the reaching responses at layer stimulus viewing
time were found to not be in the correct direction. Thus, they require more rime to isolate
tasks that are relevant in the incompatible stimuli in order to formulate response.
The activation of relevant tasks information along direct and indirect routes is handled
differently. They take a little time to identify colour stimulus viewing time and are faster in
engaging activation of a presence from the cognitive route. The reach to touch paradigm is
able to reach time course response in reference to stimulus processing time in terms of direct
and cognitive routes.
Conclusion
The difference between temporal cognitive control in bilingual and monolinguals in
the Simon tasks is based in a reach to touch paradigm. There is more efficiency in attentional
control systems amongst the bilinguals as opposed to monolinguals which is indicated by the
fast activation of relevant task stimulus information in incongruent condition.

Part Three: Stroop Task
Introduction
STROOP TASK
The Stroop is one of the most studied findings in experimental findings in the field of
psychology. This is due to increase in response latency when it comes to naming the colour
ink in which a word is printed in a name that is unrelated to the colour. The Stroop
investigates the cognitive responses. Though there is no particular function that relates to
how younger adults responds when compared to the older adults, there is sure enough a
difference that is great, between the two. Therefore, analysis is deemed important as it assists
in proportioning each individual’s response latency. Previous studies have shown
inconsistency in repairing the differences in speed due to various variables. These results to
errors. This is why Fisher and Corkin (1990) made investigation into the correct number of
response latency directly made by participants within a time frame of 45 seconds.
Stroop effect is best seen in patients suffering from dementia of the Alzheimer’s type.
Through Jacoby’s (1991) process of dissociation, Lindsay and Jacoby (1994) were able to
decouple the contributions that word processing and colour processing were able to make in
Stoop performance.
DEMERITS
 When the conditions are blocked, there is possibility of the participants
developing attention to irrelevant dimensions.
 There is also less indication of condition of congruency in the colour presented.
This according to Lindsey and Jacoby (1194), leads to affects the dependency on
word formation in driving responses causing increase in congruency.
 There is also the less amount of facilitation in the congruent trials.

 Being that the Stroop method uses colour patches, words or shapes, there is less
stimuli which differ quantitatively amongst the stimuli in the test.
 At the same time, the neutral stimuli may affect differently disrupting processing
amongst the older adults as compared to the younger adults.
 The irrelevancy in dimensions results to conflicting information.
Methods
Stroop task is a measure of speed and accuracy when conflicting information is
provided, in this case where the colour of the text and the word meaning differ or are in
conflict with each other. There are two types of Stroop Tasks (Word and Color) conducted
and each task has three conditions – congruent, incongruent and neutral. The word stimuli
was presented in four colors (yellow, green, red and blue) alongside four neutral words (legal,
deep, poor and bad). All the neutral words were matched with the color of names as listed by
Kucera and Francis (1907). The Stroop Task consists of two types of instructions – two
separate blocks (color naming and word naming blocks).
Participants were asked to identify the in color for which a word is printed but still at
the same time ignore the word’s identity. This was due to the fact that even through they are
unrelated, word has a sting interference capability to color. Systems that are engaged to
processing words such as orthography to photography and orthography to semantics. There is
a competition for resources in describing a colored word that names a color, in the processing
system.
The ability of work interfering with identifying a clot facilitates its identification. This
is due to the higher degree of attentional selection required in each of the Stroop-Word and
Stroop-Colour blocks, participants were given 12 practice trials before data was collected. A
total of 120 measured trials were conducted for each of the two Stroop tasks; each block
contained 38 incongruent, 38 congruent and 44 neutral conditions. Participants were asked to

complete the complete block of 120 trials without stopping unless it was necessary to pause.
Brief rest periods were given between the Stroop-Word and Stroop-Colour tasks.
In the Stroop-Word task, the participant is asked to name the word, no matter the
word/color congruent, incongruent, neutral or the tasks effect. Thus, a correct response to the
leftmost image in Figure 1 would be, ‘blue.’ In the Stroop-Colour task, the participant is
asked to name the colour of the letters no matter word/color congruent, incongruent, neutral
or the tasks effect. The correct response to the leftmost image in Figure 1 for the Stroop-
Colour task would be, ‘red.’ Participant reaction times were measured, determined as the time
between the appearance of the image and the spoken response as recorded; the responses that
were faster/below than 150ms and slower/above than 1000ms were not included in the
analysis. Participants received no feedback on their accuracy during the test.
In each condition, the word stimulus was presented on a white background alongside
the colored word against the background. In some cases, the colour and the name of the word
matched and were printed in a colour and font equivalent to times new roman 32 – congruent
condition. In other cases, the colour was different than the word – incongruent condition.
Figure 7 illustrates an example of the images presented.
Figure 7: Example of several images presented in the Stroop Tasks.
This task was a verbal task. Participants wore headphones fitted with a microphone
that was connected to a voice key box. The voice key box was used to determine precise
BLUE RED POOR YELLOW

timing of user responses. The Super Lab program was used to present the computer tests to
the participants. In addition to the Dell Precision PC, an iPad was used in this test to record
the participants’ voices as a backup after the participants signed a consent form.
Results
Through implantation of attentional control sources of information and other
associated with conflicting source of color were identified. There was a similarity in patterns
of activities noted for congruent color word blocks when compared to the neutral ones. The
use of fMRI to examine the age-related changes in the neutral substrates of attentional control
using insurgent and congruent block trials, showed the difference between neutral activity in
presence of conflicting information sources. Through use of multi regions using regressors
like competing sources of color information and identification of regions that are active in
presence of conflicting sources of information, allowed for determination of extent of
congruent and incongruent trials in demand to attentional network. The multi region signal
increases during congruent blocks and returns to a level form in neutral blocks and back up
again in congruent blocks. One of the most notable things was the fact that a region was well
capable to handle congruent and incongruent trials.
There was a similarity of patterns pre and post prefrontal cortex for attentionally
demanding conditions of the task. When placed under regression, there was increase in
dorsolateral perforate cortex (DLPFC) activity for competition of regressors especially when
then identification of words provided a second source of information. There was also a high
overlap between active recons where the activities increased between left and right DLPFC
for the younger participants.
There were additional active regions in the DLPFC due to conflicting sources of
information but the sources weren’t overlapping. For the younger participants, there were

unique areas of greater activity within the DLPFC which wasn’t the same for the other
participants that showed failure of comparison to support unique regions. There was a less
portion of the DLPFC involved in competition mediation in older participants and activation
of anterior and ventrolateral regions of prefrontal cortex in younger participants. There was
also an increased activity within the anterior inferior for the older participants. There was
increased activity noted in the interior frontal gyrus for the older participants.
Thus, wasn’t identified in the younger participants. There was significant increase in
activity in the cingulate cortex (ACC) for the younger participants as opposed to the older
participants. The inconsistency of findings suggests to increase of congruate activity during
conditions of completions. Between younger and older participants, there was increase of
activity in the presence of conflicting information. The increase of activity for the older
participants sought to increase activity that produced an increase in effectiveness of
implementing attentional control effectively. The parietal correct increases activity in
presence of competing color information being far more extensive
Response latency Analysis.
Any latencies with incorrect responses from the trials were excluded from the
response latency analysis. There were general indications towards the slowness in minimising
word in neutral conditions. This was credited to the repetition in priming where the colours
were named in a ratio of 2:1. This means that there was less control in appropriate conditions.
There was also increased interference among the older adults as to when compared with the
younger adults. This was credited to the increased number of interactions that led to increased
number of interference in the older adults. There was a higher facilitation rate amongst the
younger adults than the older adults when the congruent and neutral conditions of each
participants were divided. The presence of intrusion errs (individual errors of naming words)
resulted to higher rates of errors in congruent conditions resulting to inability to establish if

the participants were actually reading or naming the coloured words well. There were
minimal interferences in overall speed in the younger participants with considerable amounts
of facilitation ratios. The interference level was also quite high for incongruent conditions for
the elderly. Thy took more time to produce a correct response. This resulted to increase in
cost of RT.
Conclusion
The aim of the test was to show that when proper task performance us kept,
attentional requirement is increased relative to neutral word trials for congruent colour words
(Carter et. Al., 19950. This is due to the fact that even though the word identification
promotes performance on congruent trials, the task executions should be based on word ink
colour and not identify of the word. This brings about completion of sources of colour for
relevant information. The similarity of results was due to the fact that incongruent twirls have
more demand of attention as the identity of the words conflicts with the ink colour.
Discussion
From the results in the test its clear that the older adults have increased difficulties in
responding to stimulus when it comes to the Stroop Task. This is due to the fact that
irrelevant information provided to a word dimension conflict with the correct mannerism of
naming response. Thus, there is an increase in interference which are seen in the overall
speed of processing information. This is true to Hasher and Zacks (1988) proposal in that
changes in the inhibitory process increases interference with the decrease in efficiently.
Estimation of age amongst the elderly proved to take up more time when compared to the
younger participants. There was deficit in time of estimation of the word to the coloured
names.

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