Age differences in lapses of intention in the stroop task

The study evaluated the hypothesis that older adults are more susceptible t o lapses of intention (lapses) than are younger adults, and explored the fa ctors contributing to these lapses. The findings of three experiments exami ning the pattern of intrusion errors in the Stroop task revealed that older adults were more likely to experience lapses than were younger adults, and that lapses tended to be of longer duration in older than younger adults. Lapses were observed under conditions of suboptimal controlled attentional processing, when task conditions required the allocation of this processing in the service of multiple behavioral goals, and during periods of slowed responding. The findings of these experiments are consistent with those fro m a growing number of studies indicating that older adults are more suscept ible to lapses of intention than younger adults.