Task Switching Across the Life Span: Effects of Age on General and Specific Switch Costs.

“Therefore, the lack of age-related effects on dealing with ambiguous goal hierarchies concurs well with these recent findings on task-switching in older adults (Kray & Lindenberger, 2000; Reimers & Maylor, 2005; Wasylyshyn et al., 2011).”

“…have reported comparable results to lab experiments but none of these studies have made a direct statistical comparison between data from a web experiment and a lab experiment (e.g., Corley & Scheepers, 2002; McGraw, Tew, & Williams, 2000; Nosek, Banaji, & Greenwald, 2002; Reimers & Maylor, 2005).”

“Specifically, while disproportionate EF decline with age is generally accepted (for a review, see Salthouse, 2004), other findings suggest that apparent EF inefficiencies are attributable to declines in lower-order component processes (Mayr, 2001; Meiran & Gotler, 2001; Reimers & Maylor, 2005).”

“For example, content–context binding (Cowan et al., 2006; Hommel, Kray & Lindenberger, 2011; Siegel, 1994; Swanson, 2017) and switch (Kray, Eber & Lindenberger, 2004; Reimers & Maylor, 2005) decrease approximately linearly across the adult life-span.”

“Errors and mean reaction times (RTs) generally increase on switch trials relative to nonswitch trials within the switch block—a difference termed the local switch cost (Belleville et al., 2008; Clark et al., 2012; Kray & Lindenberger, 2000; Reimers & Maylor, 2005; Tse et al., 2010).”

“…Cragg & Nation, 2009; Crone, Bunge, van der Molen, & Ridderinkhof, 2006a; Davidson, Amso, Anderson, & Diamond, 2006; Deak, Ray, & Pick, 2004; Ellefson, Shapiro, & Chater, 2006; Gupta, Kar, & Srinivasan, 2009; Reimers & Maylor, 2005; but see Kray, Eber, & Lindenberger, 2004, for disparate results).”

“Others reached the conclusion that the effect of education is restricted (e.g., Reimers & Maylor, 2005; van Dijk et al., 2008).”

“Furthermore, the ‘‘shift cost’’ has been found to be enhanced, compared with healthy young adults, in older adults, participants with acquired brain damage, and a variety of clinical populations [4–6].”

“Note though that several studies found no age-related increase in task-switch costs (Adrover-Roig & Barcelo, 2010; Kray & Lindenberger, 2000; Lien, Ruthruff, & Kuhns, 2008; Mayr & Liebscher, 2001; Reimers & Maylor, 2005; West & Travers, 2008).”

“Cross-sectional evidence comparing different age groups suggests that patterns of age differences differ between mixing and switch costs [17–20]: for instance, Reimers and Maylor [17] investigated task switching between 10 and 66 years using an alternating-runs task-switching paradigm in which the…”

“Age-related changes have been found in goal setting and switching, with a more pronounced U shape for the former (e.g., Cepeda, Kramer, & Gonzalez de Sather, 2001; Karbach & Kray, 2007; Reimers & Maylor, 2005).”

“This age effect was attributed to executive dysfunctions, specifically a deficit in deactivating the previously and activating the currently relevant task set (Kray & Lindenberger, 2000; Mayr, 2001; Reimers & Maylor, 2005).”

“Cognitive flexibility starts to decrease at the beginning of middle age in humans (;40 years of age) and rats (;12months of age; Reimers and Maylor, 2005; Beuk et al., 2016), which is consistent with the detriment observed in our old rats.”

“…the youngest children showing the largest costs, similar to findings of larger task switching costs ( Cepeda, Kramer, & Gonzales de Sather, 2001; Reimers & Maylor, 2005) and larger flanker interference effects (e.g., Enns & Girgus, 1985; Ridderinkhof & van der Molen, 1995) in children compared…”

“1 On the contrary, most of these aging studies consistently observed age-related differences in mixing costs, which reflect a form of working memory rather than shifting ability per se (e.g., Karayanidis, Whitson, Heathcote, & Michie, 2011; Kray and Lindenberger, 2000; Kray et al., 2004, 2008; Kray, Eppinger, & Meckli…”

“Our Web-based experiments also capitalize on the growing literature that demonstrates the validity of online studies (Crump, McDonnell, & Gureckis, 2013; Germine et al., 2012; Gosling, Vazire, Srivastava, & John, 2004; Reimers & Maylor, 2005; Reimers & Stewart, 2007).”

“…& Nation, 2009; Crone, Bunge, van der Molen, & Ridderinkhof, 2006; Davidson, Amso, Anderson, & Diamond, 2006; Deak, Ray, & Pick, 2004; Ellefson, Shapiro, & Chater, 2006; Gupta, Kar, & Srinivasan, 2009; Huizinga, Burack, & van der Molen, 2010; Huizinga & van der Molen, 2011; Reimers & Maylor, 2005).”

“In line with the assumptions of the frontal lobe hypothesis, the ability to shift cognitive resources towards new task goals decreases with increasing age (Bier et al., 2017; Braver et al., 2001; Braver and West, 2008; Naveh-Benjamin et al., 2005; Reimers and Maylor, 2005).”

“…Amso, Anderson, & Diamond, 2006; Kopp, Steinke, Meiran, Seer, & Lange, 2018; Meiran, 2005; Meiran, Chorev, & Sapir, 2000; Nweze, Eze, & Lange, 2020; Reimers & Maylor, 2005; Schneider & Logan, 2010; Zelazo, Craik, & Booth, 2004; Logan, 2004) and have been conceptualized as a top-down cognitive…”

“The cost of multi-tasking is thus a function of the available cognitive resources, which increase with age (Cepeda, Kramer, & Gonzalez de Sather, 2001; Ferdinand & Kray, 2014; Maquestiaux, Hartley, & Bertsch, 2004; Reimers & Maylor, 2005).”

“…play a critical role, such as age (Cepeda, Kramer, & Gonzalez de Sather, 2001; Kray & Ferdinand, 2014; Maquestiaux, Hartley, & Bertsch, 2004; Reimers & Maylor, 2005) or one’s own individual multitasking style (Lehle & Huebner, 2009; Miller, Ulrich, & Rolke, 2009; Reissland & Manzey, 2016).”

“…thus greater interference compared with young adults (Bedard et al., 2002; Cepeda et al., 2001; Comalli, Wapner, & Werner, 1962; Kray, Eber, & Lindenberger, 2004; Reimers & Maylor, 2005; Williams, Ponesse, Schachar, Logan, & Tannock, 1999; Zelazo, Craik, & Booth, 2004; but see Verhaeghen, 2011).”

“For example, previous research has shown that after reaching adulthood, people experience higher switch costs with increased age, making it harder to switch between different tasks or sources of information (Cepeda et al., 2001; Reimers & Maylor, 2005).”

“Mixedblock-design paradigms allow researchers to evaluate performance-cost in two ways: (a) by measuring the difference in speed and/or accuracy between the compatible block and the compatible trials of the mixed block, known as mixing-cost (Reimers and Maylor, 2005; Cragg and Chevalier, 2012) and, (b) by measuring th…”

“Cognitive task-switching, the shifting between cognitive tasks or mental sets (Monsell, 2003), has been shown to be susceptible to age-related declines (Kray and Lindenberger, 2000; Reimers and Maylor, 2005).”

“In line with results from cognitive neuroscience, this result confirms that the task-switching paradigm taxes multiple processes that have distinct developmental profiles (Reimers and Maylor 2005) and rely on different neural networks (Yeung et al.”

“Nearly all developmental studies found an increase of this ability during middle childhood as well as larger age-related changes in task-goal maintenance than in cognitive flexibility, suggesting the ability of switching between task and rules develops earlier (e.g., Cepeda et al., 2001; Crone et al., 2004; Kray et al…”

“…2003), maintenance, and monitoring (Braver et al., 2003; Pettigrew and Martin, 2016; Rubin and Meiran, 2005) follow an extended maturational path, potentially continuing into adolescence (Cepeda et al., 2001; Crone et al., 2006a, 2004; Huizinga and van der Molen, 2007; Reimers and Maylor, 2005).”

“Several of these lower level processes display age-related changes across the life span, and people tend to perform optimally during adolescence and early adulthood on tests measuring them (e.g., Hartsthorne & Germine, 2015, Exp. 1; Maylor & Logie, 2010; Murre et al., 2013; Reimers & Maylor, 2005).”

“Previous research has shown agerelated impairments in maintaining multiple tasks in working memory (Verhaeghen and Cerella, 2002; Reimers and Maylor, 2005; Wasylyshyn et al., 2011) and in working memory updating (Van der Linden et al., 1994; Hartman et al., 2001; Salthouse et al., 2003; De Beni and…”

“The behavioral and functional imaging main effects of switching are in line with what has been previously summarized in a meta-analysis cited in the introduction (Reimers and Maylor, 2005; Wager et al., 2004).”

“…the ability to distribute attention in terms of dual-task coordination continues progressing significantly until the age of 15 years, reaching maturity later than inhibition control and similarly to working memory or switching (Cepeda et al., 2001; Huizinga et al., 2006; Reimers & Maylor, 2005).”

“While this may be partly due to the relatively small sample size, the finding is compatible with previous studies showing no change in RT switch cost across a similar age range (Kray et al., 2004; Reimers and Maylor, 2005; Karbach and Kray, 2007).”

“Kray, Eber, & Lindenberger, 2004; Kray, Karbach, & Blaye, 2012; Manzi, Nessler, Czernochowski, & Friedman, 2011; Reimers & Maylor, 2005).”

“Besides, when taking a broader task switching background into account, there are even effects that can be fitted with linear models, like the decrease of switch costs during adolescence and the increase of them through adulthood (Reimers & Maylor, 2005).”

“…men outperform women on tasks assessing spatial and visuospatial ability, inhibition, and task-switching (Bieri, Bradburn & Galinsky, 1958; Finkel et al., 2003; Karlsson, Thorvaldsson, Skoog, Gudmundsson & Johansson, 2015; Reimers & Maylor, 2005; Tun & Lachman, 2009; Voyer, Voyer & Bryden, 1995).”

“…local switch costs are observed when cognitive demands are large (e.g., Davidson et al., 2006) and they may decrease when the switch is highly predictable (e.g., Reimers & Maylor, 2005), or after age-related slowing is taken into consideration (e.g., Salthouse, Fristoe, McGuthry, & Hambrick, 1998).”

“…während Altersunterschiede in spezifischen Wechselkosten geringer oder nicht vorhanden sein sollten (Cepeda et al., 2001; Crone et al., 2004; Kray, 2006; Kray et al., im Druck; Kray et al., 2004; Kray & Lindenberger, 2000; Reimers & Maylor, 2005; Mayr, 2001; Verhaeghen & Cerella, 2002).”

“…cost of maintaining multiple task-sets and having to select between them, decreased with increasing age, local switch costs, i.e., the costs for switching itself, appeared to be age-invariant (Crone et al., 2006; Karbach & Kray, 2007; Kray et al., 2004; Manzi et al., 2011; Reimers & Maylor, 2005).”

“However, its increase in older individuals had already been found in a number of studies using the cueing paradigm (DiGirolamo et al., 2001; Mayr, 2001; Meiran et al., 2001; Kray et al., 2002; Reimers and Maylor, 2005; West and Travers, 2008; Adrover-Roig and Barceló, 2010).”

“…provided evidence of a positive relationship between cognitive aging and mixing costs (i.e., the difference between repeat trials of a mixed task block and non-switch trials of a single-task block; Kray and Lindenberger, 2000; Reimers and Maylor, 2005; Wasylyshyn et al., 2011; Huff et al., 2015).”

“We focused on children between 8 and 11 years because executive functions continue to develop during this age period (Reimers and Maylor 2005; Karbach and Unger 2014; see also Tervo-Clemmens et al. 2023) and may therefore be particularly malleable through training (Luna et al. 2015; Laube et al.…”

“This design mixing numerosity and phonological comparisons entails switch costs (slower responses for switch trials than for nonswitch trials within blocks mixing the two), but these specific costs were found to be stable across age when general development-related slowing is taken into account [37].”

“…tasks in ageing Research suggests that ageing is associated with reduced ability to maintain and schedule two different tasks in working memory (Reimers & Maylor, 2005; Verhaeghen & Cerella, 2002; Wasylyshyn, Verhaeghen, & Sliwinski, 2011), which is labelled global task switching and examined…”

“For example, Reimers and Maylor (2005) did not find an association between task switching and education in a sample of 12,103 data sets using a facial categorization task.”

“A growing body of literature exists comparing the performance on switching tasks between young and old adults [48,49,51,53] and people with and without cognitive deficits associated with dementia [53,54].”

“This coincides with some studies that report that GSC is highly influenced by age, whereas LSC typically remains stable across the life span (Reimers & Maylor, 2005).”

“…III, Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires B7602AYJ, Argentina © 2022 Taylor & Francis Sather, 2001; Davidson et al., 2006; Huizinga & Van der Molen, 2007; Reimers & Maylor, 2005; Segundo-Marcos, Carrillo, Fernández, & González, 2022), reflecting the growth of neural networks that include the…”

“Specifically, performance against the average of both switch and repeat trials in a mixed task block, thereby inflating its measurement (eg., Reimers & Maylor, 2005).”

“Moreover, age-related results regarding local switch cost have been mixed, with some studies reporting a linear increase (Reimers and Maylor, 2005), some a linear decrease (Ferguson et al., 2021), and others a minimal change from early (Huff et al., 2015; Kray and Lindenberger, 2000) or middle…”

“…emotion switch task, researchers found adolescents (approximately 16.5 years) showed the fastest response times for emotion, gender, and switching blocks than young and middle-aged adults; meanwhile, they also showed less switch costs than young and middle-aged adults (Reimers and Maylor, 2005).”