Jm. Glass et al., Aging and the psychological refractory period: Task-coordination strategies in young and old adults, PSYCHOL AG, 15(4), 2000, pp. 571-595
The apparently deleterious effect of aging on dual-task performance is well
established, but there is Little agreement about the source of this effect
. Studies of the psychological refractory period (PRP) indicate that young
adults can flexibly control dual-task performance through task-coordination
strategies. Thus, the performance of older adults might differ from young
adults because older adults use different task-coordination strategies. To
test this hypothesis, the executive-process interactive control (EPIC) arch
itecture was applied to quantify the reaction time data from two PRP experi
ments conducted with young (age 18-26) and older (age 60-70) adults. The re
sults show that participants' ability to coordinate the processing of two t
asks did not decline with age. However, dual-task time costs were greater i
n the older adults. Three sources for this increase were found: generalized
slowing, process-specific slowing, and the use of more cautious task-coord
ination strategies by the older adults.