CONTINUED INHIBITORY CAPACITY THROUGHOUT ADULTHOOD - CONCEPTUAL NEGATIVE PRIMING IN YOUNGER AND OLDER ADULTS

Two negative priming experiments in older and younger adults are repor ted. Participants in Experiment 1, involving both positive and negativ e priming conditions, showed both types of priming. There were no sign ificant differences between age groups. If anything, older participant s showed more negative priming. In Experiment 2, involving only negati ve priming conditions, similar results were obtained. Our findings rul e out possible effects of experimental conditions that episodic retrie val theorists have suggested might account for negative priming in old er adults. Although our results may be consistent with an explanation of negative riming in older adults by an expansively specified theory of episodic retrieval, they are at least as consistent with the view t hat inhibitory processes are intact in older adults. In light of these findings: conflicting empirical results and alternative views of nega tive priming in older adults are examined.