Cognitive Gerontology and Attentional Inhibition: A Reply to Burke and McDowd
Abstract
Our response to the Burke and McDowd critiques (in this issue) begins with a history of the origins of the inhibitory deficit view and of its development since 1988 as well as with an account of some particularly useful findings and of our preferred mode of theory building, which is nonformal and empirically driven. Against this background, we find many points of agreement with Burke and McDowd but also many points of disagreement. For example, we agree with Burke that many aspects of language comprehension and production are age invariant, but we disagree that all such findings count against our viewpoint. Likewise, we readily acknowledge the problems in measuring inhibition that McDowd so clearly documents, but do not feel that this is a fatal problem as long as the inhibitory deficit view continues to be viable within the basic attentional literature, continues to permit the integration of a large body of existing data, and continues to generate new predictions.
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According to Zacks and Hasher, there are three inhibitory functions: the access function, the deletion function, and the restrain function.
“According to Zacks and Hasher (1997), there are three inhibitory functions: the “access function”, which limits access to the WM to those with direct relevance to the task, the “deletion function” removes information from the WM that is irrelevant, inappropriate, or becomes irrelevant due to changes in goals or demands. Finally, the “restrain function” stops the emission of strong responses.”
From Assessment of executive functions in school-aged children: A narrative review (2022) · cites this paper as Zacks and Hasher (1997)
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- Authors
- Zacks, R., & Hasher, L.
- Affiliations
- Michigan State University (US)
- Duke University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Zacks, R.
- Venue
- The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1997-11-01
- Volume
- 52B
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- P274-P283
- ISSN
- 1079-5014 (ISSN-L)
- 1758-5368
- OpenAlex
- W2168945832
- Cited by
- 220
- References
- 69
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 16
- FWCI
- 12.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Journals of Gerontology Series B (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Aging (AGO4306, AGO-2753)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
- Keywords
- attentional inhibition, cognitive aging, older adults, language comprehension, language production, age invariance, theory development
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Aging, Alzheimer Disease, Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity, Cognition Disorders, Humans
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