Psychology and Aging Copyright 1992 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.

1992, Vol. 7, No. 1,65-71

Aging, Selective Attention, and Inhibitory Processes:

A Psychophysiological Approach
Joan M. McDowd and Diane L. Filion
University of Southern California

The present study investigated the efficiency with which younger and older adults allocate atten-
tion to relevant and irrelevant stimuli. The model of attention guiding this research links the
orienting response with the allocation of attention and habituation with the inhibition of the
allocation of attention. We adapted a paradigm developed by lacono and Lykken (1983) in which
subjects are instructed unambiguously either to attend to or to ignore a series of innocuous tones,
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and the skin conductance orienting response elicited by each tone is measured. Results revealed
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that young subjects instructed to ignore the tones habituated more quickly than did those in-
structed to attend to the tones. However, older adults exhibited nondifferential orienting across the
2 instruction conditions. These results suggest an age-related deficit in the ability to inhibit atten-
tion to irrelevant stimuli.

In the literature on aging and cognitive function, the selective
attention abilities of older adults have been reported to be com-
promised (see McDowd & Birren, 1990; Plude & Hoyer, 1985;
Sugar & McDowd, 1992, for reviews). The literature points to an
age-related decrease in the ability to ignore irrelevant informa-
tion, which also has been characterized as an increase in dis-
tractibility. A number of attempts have been made to provide
theoretical accounts of these age differences in selective atten-
tion. For example, Rabbitt (1979) made use of the distinction
between data-driven and memory-driven selective attention,
Plude and Hoyer (1985) postulated the spatial localization hy-
pothesis, and Plude (e.g, Plude & Doussard-Roosevelt, 1989)
used feature integration theory to understand age differences
in visual selective attention. None of these has proved to be
entirely successful as a general theory for age-related attentional
declines, although they may embody principles that will be
part of a more general theory.
The research reported here examines age-related selective at-
tention behavior in the context of a dual-process model of selec-
tive attention. Such a model emphasizes both the selection of
relevant information and the inhibition of irrelevant informa-
tion. The notion that selective attention involves not only the
processes of attending to selected information but also those
required to inhibit nonselected information has roots in Tries-
man's (1969) attenuating filter model. This dual process model
This work was supported by a Biomedical Research Support grant
and by the Brookdale Foundation Group, which provided fellowship
support to Joan M. McDowd.
We thank Michael A. Dawson for his assistance in data collection
and Bill Troyer for assistance with laboratory instrumentation. We
also thank William lacono for providing us with a copy of his original
postexperimental questionnaire and the Society for the Preservation
and Encouragement of Radio Drama, Variety, and Comedy (SPAERD-
VAC) for their help in locating a copy of "The Man Who Knew How"
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Joan
M. McDowd, Department of Psychology, SGM 501, University of
Southern California, J-os Angeles, California 90089-1061.
65
of selective attention has been developed both theoretically and
empirically since Triesman's model (e.g., Greenwald, 1972;
Keele & Neill, 1978; Neill, 1977; Posner & Snyder, 1975; Tipper,
1985). Posner and Snyder (1975) stated that theories of attention
must deal with both facilitatory and inhibitory processes and
that these are separate processes.
Within the framework of such a dual-process view of selec-
tive attention it may be beneficial to understand age differences
in attentional functioning in terms of a disruption of the bal-
ance between facilitatory and inhibitory processes. Specifi-
cally, it is postulated here that aging is associated with changes
in the inhibitory control of behavior. There are a variety of
behavioral data to suggest that older adults have weakened in-
hibitory control relative to young adults. For example, altered
inhibitory processes would produce patterns of data such as
increased intrusion errors in free recall for older adults (e.g.,
Fuld, Katzman, Davies, & Terry, 1982; Stine & Wingfield,
1987), increased Stroop interference (Cohn, Dustman, & Brad-
ford, 1984; Comalli, 1962), inaccurate frequency judgments
(Kausler & Hakami, 1982), and less efficient problem solving
(Hoyer, Rebok, & Sved, 1979). Hasher and colleagues (Hasher,
Connelly, & Zacks, 1990; Hasher, Rypma, Stoltzfus, & Zacks,
1989) recently reported age-related declines in inhibitory func-
tion using negative priming and visual selective attention para-
digms. McDowd and Oseas (in press) have reported similar
results with the negative priming paradigm.
The present study was undertaken to examine age differ-
ences in facilitatory and inhibitory function, and specifically to
test the hypothesis that because of an age-related decrement in
inhibitory function, older adults allocate their attentional re-
sources less efficiently than do young adults. To test this hy-
pothesis, the present investigation involved a selective attention
task carried out within a psychophysiological paradigm involv-
ing elicitation and habituation of the orienting response.
The orienting response (OR) is a complex pattern of skeletal,
physiological, and behavioral changes that is reliably elicited by
any relatively innocuous stimulus that is novel, unexpected,
 66 JOAN M. McDOWD AND DIANE L. FILION
interesting, or significant. Physiologically, the OR typically
consists of a momentary increase in skin conductance, cephalic
blood flow, and pupil dilation and a momentary decrease in
heart rate and peripheral blood flow. These physiological
changes are thought to facilitate and enhance the processing of
sensory information.
The skin conductance orienting response (SCOR) used in the
present research is the most frequently studied OR component
in psychological research. Recent evidence suggests that the
SCOR reflects the allocation of attention (e.g., Ohman, 1979)
and that the size of the SCOR is related to the amount of atten-
tion allocated (e.g., Dawson, Filion, & Schell, 1989; Filion,
Dawson, Schell, & Hazlett, in press). On the basis of this evi-
dence, it may be inferred that the gradual decrease in SCOR
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size that occurs with repeated stimulus presentations (habitua-
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tion) reflects the decreasing amount of attention being allo-
cated to that stimulus (e.g., Waters, McDonald, & Koresko,
1977).
Cowan (1988) recently postulated a model of selective atten-
tion that is based on habituation in which central executive
processes select an information channel for processing and ha-
bituate to all nonselected channels. To efficiently interact with
a constantly changing environment, an individual must not
only attend to stimuli that are novel or meaningful, but must
also quickly cease/inhibit attending to stimuli that have be-
come irrelevant. In the present context, habituation of the
SCOR is considered to reflect the adaptive inhibition of atten-
tion to a stimulus as it becomes increasingly less novel, interest-
ing, or meaningful (e.g., Cowan, 1988; Kahneman, 1973;
Posner, 1980).
SCOR habituation is used in the present investigation as a
measure of the efficiency with which younger and older adults
allocate attentional resources. Specifically, the experiment re-
ported here tests the hypothesis that there is an age-related
decline in the efficiency of attentional allocation that results
from a deficit in the ability to inhibit attention to irrelevant
information. This hypothesis was tested with procedures used
by lacono and Lykken (1983) in which young adult subjects
were instructed either to attend to or to ignore a series of audi-
tory tones. Under these conditions, the young adult subjects
instructed to ignore the tones showed more rapid SCOR habit-
uation to those tones than did subjects instructed to attend to
the tones. This experimental design lends itself well to the ex-
amination of attentional processes in aging. For present pur-
poses it is of interest to examine the relative rates of SCOR
habituation to the meaningful (attended) and nonmeaningful
(ignored) stimuli in groups of young and older adults. On the
basis of the view that habituation reflects the withdrawal of
attention from stimuli that are no longer important, SCOR
habituation in both age groups should be significantly faster to
the nonmeaningful tones. However, if inhibitory processes are
compromised with age, older adults may demonstrate less con-
trol over the allocation of attention. Inefficient allocation of
attention could result in an age-related slowing of habituation to
the nonmeaningful stimuli. Thus, the critical test in the present
study is to compare the rates of SCOR habituation of older
adults in the attend condition with SCOR habituation rates of
older adults in the ignore condition. If older adults are indeed
less able to inhibit the allocation of attention, then they will
continue to allocate attention to the to-be-ignored tones, result-
ing in smaller differential habituation rates between the attend
and ignore conditions relative to the young adults.
Method
The use of psychophysiological paradigms is relatively new in the
study of aging. There are many reports suggesting that older adults are
autonomically underaroused (see Marsh & Thompson, 1977, for a re-
view). This age-related decrease in responsivity typically has been
viewed as a major limitation to the use of autonomic measures in the
study of cognitive aging. That is, baseline differences and floor effects
in responsivity for older adults would have complicated the interpreta-
tion of results, as reduced responsivity could be due to autonomic
underarousal rather than to any experimental manipulations. How-
ever, the present study was designed such that the hypotheses being
tested called for greater responsivity on the part of older relative to
younger adults. In fact, our prediction is that the ORs of the younger
subjects will decrease over trials more quickly than the ORs of the
older subjects, particularly in the ignore condition.
A similar strategy was used by Jennings, Nebes, and \bvetich (1990),
who used cardiovascular measures to study age-related changes in at-
tentional demands associated with memory encoding. They observed
greater responsivity on the part of the older adults across trials, even
though younger adults initially showed larger heart rate responses.
Thus, both in Jennings et al. (1990) and the present study, support for
hypotheses required greater responsivity on the part of older adults. As
a consequence, interpretation of results could not be confounded by
peripheral age-related changes in the response systems under scrutiny
or by a global underarousal of the nervous system.
Subjects
Thirty-eight young adults and 40 older adults participated in the
present study. The young adults were undergraduates who received
extra credit for their participation from introductory psychology
courses at the University of Southern California (USC). The 40 older
adult subjects were recruited from a pool of USC alumni who have
indicated a willingness to participate in research projects. In tele-
phone scheduling of testing sessions, only those adults reporting good
health and no vision or hearing problems were included. Older adult
subjects had at least a college education, were living independently in
the Los Angeles area, and traveled to the campus on their own. The
data of 6 young subjects and 8 older subjects were excluded from analy-
ses because of experimenter error (5) and equipment malfunction (9).
In addition, data were excluded from 8 older adults who failed to ex-
hibit even one SCOR during the 20 tone presentations. For the remain-
ing 56 subjects, age and sex compositions by instruction condition
were as follows: The 16 young adults in the attend condition were 6
men and 10 women with an average age of 18.8 years (SD = 1.0). The 12
older adults in the attend condition were 5 men and 7 women with an
average age of 73.7 years (SD = 4.3). The 16 young adults in the ignore
condition were 7 men and 9 women with an average age of 19.7 years
(SD = 4.2). The 12 older adults in the ignore condition were 6 men and
6 women with an average age of 73.8 years (SD = 6.2).
Design
A 2 (age: young, old) X 2 (instruction condition: attend, ignore) be-
tween-groups design was used. Subjects in each age group were as-
signed to either the attend or ignore condition such tint for every two
subjects tested, one received attend instructions and one received ig-
nore instructions. Assignment of individual to instruction condition
within each pair was determined by toss of a coin.
 AGING, INHIBITORY PROCESSES, AND ATTENTION
Materials
Experimental stimuli consisted of a tape-recorded radio play and a
series of 20 tones. The radio play, which lasted approximately 25 min,
was the same as that used by lacono and Lykken (1983). The play,
entitled "The Man Who Knew How," a suspenseful tale from the 1940s,
was originally chosen by lacono and Lykken because it had been rated
as interesting and was found to have no marked effects on electroder-
mal activity. The tone series that was presented concurrently with the
play consisted of twenty 1000-Hz, 75-dB tones presented at irregular
intervals ranging from 30 to 90 s, with an average intertone interval of
60 s. All tones were presented during low loudness points of the play.
The first tone was presented exactly 5 min into the play, and the last
tone was presented slightly over 5 min before the play's conclusion. The
radio play and tones were recorded with a multichannel audio recorder
such that they were on separate tracks and could be heard simulta-
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neously. Although auditory acuity was not tested, no subject reported
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significant hearing difficulties nor wore hearing aids. In addition, the
test materials were presented at an intensity of 75 dB, which is well
within the range of normal hearing for both young and older adults
(Corso, 1977).
Procedures
On arrival at the laboratory, subjects were seated in a comfortable
chair and electrodes and transducers were attached for the recording of
skin conductance and heart rate. These autonomic responses were
then recorded during a 5 min pretask adaptation period while subjects
sat quietly with their eyes open. Following adaptation, subjects heard
one of the following two sets of tape-recorded instructions that were
taken directly from lacono and Lykken (1983):
1. Ignore condition instructions. "During the remainder of the ses-
sion we're going to measure how well you can ignore distracting tones
while you listen to a tape recording of a story. You will hear the story
and the tones coming from the speakers located on the wall behind
you. All the tones will sound the same. Your task is to focus your
attention on the story and ignore the tones. It is important that you pay
very close attention to the story; listen to it carefully and you should be
able to ignore the tones. We will be measuring your body's responses to
see how quickly you can stop reacting to these meaningless tones. The
more you absorb yourself in the story, the easier it will be to stop
reacting to the tones. Take a few minutes now to get into a comfortable
position, relax, and try not to move until this part of the session is over.
Remember, the best way to ignore the tones is to pay careful attention
to the story. The story you will be listening to is a radio play from the
1940s entitled 'The Man Who Knew How.' This mystery, set in Great
Britain, features Charles Laughton in the role of Mr. Fender, a wealthy
Englishman who likes to read detective stories. Remember, focus your
attention on the story and ignore the tones."
2. Attend condition instructions. "During the remainder of the ses-
sion we will be recording your body's responses while you listen to a
series of brief tones. The tones will be presented from time to time
through the speaker located on the wall behind you. Your task is to
attend to these tones. It is important that you pay very close attention
to them; listen to them carefully. Focus your attention on the tones. To
be sure that you attend to each tone, you should count them silently as
they occur. Also, you should listen to the tones carefully to be certain
that they all sound the same. Take a few minutes now to get into a
comfortable position, relax, and try not to move until this part of the
session is over. Remember to count the tones silently and listen to them
very carefully. So you won't get bored, we will also be playing for you a
tape-recorded story. This story is a radio play from the 1940s that
features Charles Laughton in the lead role. Remember, your task is to
listen to the tones very carefully—count them silently and be sure they
all sound the same."
67
The play and tone series were then presented. When the play ended,
subjects in each condition were first asked a series of questions regard-
ing events that occurred in the play and were then asked how many
tones were presented.
Acquisition and Scoring of Dependent Measures
The primary dependent measure was the SCOR to the 20 tone pre-
sentations and skin conductance level and heart rate level during the
pretask adaptation phase. These physiological measures were hand-
scored by one of the authors, who was blind to age and instruction
condition. Following are descriptions of the scoring criteria for these
autonomic measures.
Skin conductance. The SCOR consists of a momentary increase in
the electrical conductivity of the skin that usually occurs within 1-5 s
following stimulus onset. Skin conductance responses were recorded
from the volar surface of the distal phalanges of the first and second
fingers of the nonpreferred hand using 10-mm silver-silver chloride
electrodes and a 0.05 M NaCl paste (Fowles et al, 1981). Skin conduc-
tance activity was recorded with the use of a Wheatstone Bridge (e.g.,
Venables & Christie, 1973) and a GRASS DC preamplifier/driver am-
plifier (Model 7P22). SCOR amplitude for each tone presentation was
recorded for any response beginning within the interval of 1 -5 s follow-
ing tone onset and having a minimum response amplitude of 0.05 M§.
Heart rate. Heart rate was obtained through use of a GRASS
photoelectric plethysmograph attached to the volar surface of the third
finger of the nonpreferred hand. The output of the plethysmograph
was fed into a GRASS Model 7P1 cardiotachometer, which was ad-
justed for reliable triggering from the finger pulse wave signal. The
cardiotachometer output a continuous reading of heart rate in beats-
per-minute based on the time between successive pulses.
Results
Postexperimental Questionnaire Data
The purpose of the postexperimental questionnaire was to
determine the extent to which subjects followed the experimen-
tal instructions. The a priori assumption was that across age
groups, subjects in the attend condition (attending to the tones)
would report a more accurate count of the number of tones
presented than would subjects in the ignore condition. Con-
versely, it was predicted that subjects in the ignore condition
(ignoring the tones) would be more accurate in their answers to
questions regarding the radio play than would subjects in the
attend condition. There were no a priori predictions regarding
age differences in terms of either of these measures.
To test these predictions, separate 2 (age: young vs. old) X 2
(instruction condition: attend vs. ignore) analyses of variance
were performed for the tone count and comprehension ques-
tions. The tone data were calculated as mean deviations from
the correct count of 20. Mean deviation scores for young adults
were 7.6 (SD = 4.5) and 2.1 (SD = 2.5) for the ignore and attend
conditions, respectively. Mean deviation scores for the older
adults were 10.0 (SD =3.1) and 3.0 (SD = 3.0) for the ignore and
attend conditions, respectively. The analysis of variance re-
vealed a marginally significant main effect of age, F(l, 52) =
3.34, p = .07, indicating that young adults were more accurate
than the older adults. The main effect of condition also reached
significance, F(l, 52) = 45.75, indicating, as predicted, that
subjects in the attend condition (attend to the tones) were more
accurate in reporting the number of tones presented than sub-
 68 JOAN M. McDOWD AND DIANE L. FILION
jects in the ignore condition. Age and condition did not inter-
act, F< 1.0.
The story comprehension data also showed a marginally sig-
nificant main effect of age, F(l, 52) = 3.14, p = .08. In contrast
to the tone-counting task, this result indicates a trend for the
older adults to outperform the young subjects by answering
more questions correctly. The main effect of condition also was
significant, F(l, 52) = 9.93, p < .01, indicating, as predicted,
that subjects in the ignore (ignore the tones) condition correctly
answered more questions than subjects in the attend condition.
The mean number of questions answered correctly out of 10 for
the young adults was 5.4 (SD =2.1) and 3.7 (SD = 2.4) for the
ignore and attend conditions, respectively. For the older adults,
the mean number of questions answered correctly was 6.5
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(SD = 1.6) and 4.7 (SD = 1.9) for the ignore and attend condi-
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tions, respectively. Age and condition did not interact, F < 1.0.
Orienting Response Results
Initial arousal and responsivity. Because habituation rates
have been shown to be related to initial arousal level (e.g, Boh-
lin, 1976), we measured skin conductance level (SCL) and heart
rate (HR) at the beginning and end of the 5-min pretask adapta-
tion phase. Table 1 shows mean skin conductance level and
heart rate at the beginning and end of the pretask adaptation
period as a function of age, sex, and instruction condition. An
Age X Sex X Instruction Condition X Period of Adaptation
(begining vs. end) analysis of variance carried out on the SCL
data revealed that SCL decreased significantly across the adap-
tation period, F(\, 48) = 91.63, p< .001, but that this decrease
was equal across age and instruction condition (there were no
other significant effects for SCL). A parallel analysis carried out
on the HR data also revealed no significant effects (all Fs <
1.73). Thus the results of the pretask adaptation period suggest
that subjects in the four conditions were at comparable levels of
autonomic arousal prior to task performance.
It is equally important to demonstrate that there were no
significant differences in initial responsivity either across age
groups or across instruction conditions at the beginning of the
task. To examine this question, the amplitude of the SCORs to
the first tone presentation and the tonic skin conductance and
Table 1
Means and Standard Deviations for Skin Conductance Level (SCL) and Heart Rate Level
(HRL) at Beginning and End of 5-min Pretask Adaptation Phase
Young
Attend Ignore
Measure M SD M SD
Beginning 6.94 2.6 7.39
End 5.61 2.2 6.46
HRL (bpm)
Beginning 80.87 10.4 77.87
End 78.19 10.5 75.66
Note. pS = micro-Siemens; bpm = beats per minute.
heart rate levels recorded at the onset of the first tone were
submitted to separate 2 (age) X 2 (condition) analyses of vari-
ance. The results revealed no significant differences among the
four groups on any of these measures (all Fs < 1.00). The aver-
age initial responsivity values for each of the response systems
are shown in Table 2.
Patterns of habituation. The SCOR magnitude values for
each of the 20 tone presentations were analyzed using analysis
of variance. Greenhouse-Geisser epsilon corrections were used
to adjust probabilities for all repeated measures effects. For all
F tests reported below involving repeated measures we report
the unadjusted degrees of freedom together with the epsilon-
corrected p value. An omega-squared (to2) estimate of effect
magnitude is reported for all significant effects, and the re-
ported probability levels for all multiple comparisons were con-
servatively adjusted using the Hochberg (1976) procedure. The
Age X Sex X Instruction Condition X Trials analysis revealed a
significant main effect of age, F(l, 48) = 36.01, p < .001 (o>2 =
.13); a main effect of trials, F(19, 912) = 10.39, p < .001 («2 =
.08); and significant Age X Instruction Condition and Age X
Trials interactions, F(l, 48) = 12.14 (w2 = .04) and F(l 9,912) =
3.53 fa2 = .02), respectively, both ps < .01. There were no signifi-
cant effects involving sex, and all subsequent analyses are col-
lapsed over this variable. The data, collapsed over sex, are
shown in Figure 1.
To clarify the nature of these effects, Instruction Condition X
Trials analyses of variance were carried out on the data from
the two age groups separately. The results for the young subjects
revealed significant main effects for trials, F(19, 570) =21.48
(co2 = .28) and instruction condition, F(l, 30) = 55.48,fco2=. 15),
and a significant Instruction Condition X Trials interaction,
F(\9,570) = 3.647 (<o2 = .04, all p < .001). As shown in Figure 1,
these results indicate that SCOR magnitude in the ignore con-
dition decreased at a higher rate than did responding in the
attend condition. Results for the older adults revealed only a
main effect of trials, F(19,418) = 1.66, p < .05 («2 = .02), indi-
cating significant but nondifferential habituation of the SCOR
for the two instruction conditions.
In addition, t tests were performed comparing the SCOR
magnitude in the attend condition with the ignore condition at
each trial. After conservative adjustment of probabilities using
Old
Attend Ignore
M SD M SD
1.1 6.54 1.2 6.42 1.9
1.2 5.35 1.3 5.19 2.1
10.2 73.17 11.3 74.42 9.2
9.0 72.92 11.8 76.18 14.0
 AGING, INHIBITORY PROCESSES, AND ATTENTION 69

Table 2
Means and Standard Deviations for Skin Conductance Level (SCL), Skin
Conductance Orienting Response (SCOR) Amplitude, and Heart Rate
Level (HRL) to the First Tone Presentation
Young Old
Attend Ignore Attend Ignore

Measure M SD M SD M SD M SD
SCL(V^S) 7.34 2.5 7.97 1.7 7.82 2.5 7.36 1.9
SCOR (VJIS) 0.69 0.3 0.59 0.3 0.71 0.4 0.64 0.3
HRL (bpm) 68.21 11.7 65.85 10.4 74.93 12.1 72.10 9.9

Note. ;iS = micro-Siemens; bpm = beats per minute.

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the Hochberg (1976) procedure, the results revealed that the
young subjects in the two conditions responded equally for the
first four trials (all ps > .05) and that SCOR magnitude was
greater for subjects in the attend condition for the remaining 16
trials (all ps < .05). In contrast, SCOR magnitude for the older
adults did not differ significantly between conditions for any of
the 20 trials (all ps >. 15). Thus, these data indicate that young
adults in the attend condition exhibited greater skin conduc-
tance orienting across trials than did young subjects in the ig-
nore condition, whereas there was no differential orienting
across condition in the older subject groups.
To further investigate this pattern of results, trials to habitua-
tion (trials to three consecutive nonresponses) were calculated
and submitted to a 2(age) X 2(condition) analysis of variance.
The results are shown in Figure 2. The age main effect was
highly significant, F(\, 52) = 32.26, p < .01 fa2 = .25), indicating
that, collapsing across condition, the older adults were slower to
habituate than the younger subjects. The effect of condition
also was significant, F(l, 52) = 19.96, p < .01fco2= . 15), as was
the Age X Condition interaction, F(l, 52) = 19.35, p < .01fco2=
. 15). As can be seen in Figure 2, the young subjects in the attend
condition habituated more slowly than did young subjects in
the ignore condition, whereas there was no difference in habi-
tuation rates across conditions for the older subjects.
Discussion
The present experiment examined age differences in a selec-
tive attention task using the autonomic orienting response as an
index of the allocation of attention. In an auditory environment
including the presentation of a radio play and a series of 20
tones, subjects were instructed either to attend to and count the
tones or to ignore the tones as best they could and listen to the
play instead. As a manipulation check on subjects' compliance
with instructions, a postexperimental questionnaire showed
that indeed, individuals told to attend to the tones were more
accurate in reporting a count of those tones, although overall
young adults were more accurate than were older adults. In
addition, those individuals told to ignore the tones were more
accurate in answering questions about the radio play, with a
trend for the older adults to be more accurate than the young.
Together, this pattern of results indicates that subjects were
performing the tasks as instructed.
The instructions given to subjects in the attend and ignore
conditions are critical in evaluating our hypotheses, and a few
comments regarding those instructions are relevant here. First,
because subjects in the ignore condition are instructed to stop
responding to the tones, it may be argued that the present re-
sults indicate that older adults are simply less able to control
their physiological responding. That is, older adults in the ig-

20i

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Young Old

Figure 1. Skin conductance orienting response (SCOR) magnitude Figure 2. Trials to habituation (trials to three consecutive nonre-
over trials as a function of age and instruction condition. sponses) as a function of age and instruction condition.
 70 JOAN M. McDOWD AND DIANE L. FILION
nore condition may habituate slowly to the tones because the
task of not responding is more difficult for them. However, if
the task required in the ignore condition was indeed more dif-
ficult for the older adults, then one might expect either (a) a
significantly greater increase in arousal level from the prein-
struction (end of the pretask adaptation period) to the postin-
struction (onset of the first tone) periods or (b) a larger response
to the first tone than exhibited by the older subjects in the
attend condition. The data reported in Tables 1 and 2 show no
indication of increased arousal or responsivity for the older
subjects in the ignore condition.
A second and closely related issue also concerns the ignore
condition instructions. Although this condition includes the
instruction to stop responding to the tones, the critical aspect
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of this instruction condition was the information provided on
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how to accomplish that goal. That is, the instructions strongly
emphasized the importance of paying close attention to the
radio play and informed subjects that doing so would help them
stop responding to the tones. Asking subjects to ignore the only
stimuli presented to them results in an ambiguous situation for
the subject and can have paradoxical effects on responding and
habituation (e.g., Gruzelier & Eves, 1987; Kohlenberg, 1970).
Thus provision of an absorbing task that allows subjects to di-
rect their attention away from the tones provides a significantly
more powerful assessment of differential attention/attending.
If subjects allocate attentional resources to the radio play, they
are likely to allocate fewer resources to the tones and hence
habituate quickly. In contrast, instructions for the attend condi-
tion strongly emphasized the importance of attending to the
tones, requiring subjects not only to attend to the tones, but also
to count them. Thus the two instruction conditions were de-
signed to maximize the probability of finding differential pat-
terns of habituation. Although the two instruction conditions
were not mirror images of one another, exact comparability
was not required for our purposes. We simply intended to repro-
duce the conditions of lacono and Lykken (1983) in which dif-
ferent patterns of habituation were observed with to-be-at-
tended and to-be-ignored stimuli. That we observed this differ-
ential habituation effect in our young adult groups represents a
direct replication of the previous findings.
With regard to the physiological measures, our model holds
that efficient attentional processes should produce rapid habi-
tuation to ignored but not to attended stimuli, whereas hypoth-
esized inhibitory deficits in older adults would result in rela-
tively slower and perhaps nondifferential habituation to at-
tended and ignored stimuli. Analysis of the physiological data
indicated that the skin conductance orienting data did distin-
guish the performance of young and older adults as a function
of instruction condition. That is, using the SCOR as an index of
the allocation of attention, it was observed that young adults
quickly developed an efficient pattern of attentional allocation
characterized by continued orienting to task-relevant stimuli
and reduced orienting via habituation to task-irrelevant stim-
uli. No such pattern was apparent among the older adults,
whose performance was characterized by continued orienting
to both task-relevant and task-irrelevant stimuli. We would in-
terpret this as indicating a decline in the inhibitory capacity of
older adults; they showed themselves to be less able to inhibit
the allocation of attention to irrelevant information than did
young adults. The implication of this result for situations re-
quiring the filtering of irrelevant information and processing of
relevant information is that older adults will be at a disadvan-
tage; more of their attention will go to the processing of irrele-
vant stimuli, possibly at the expense of speed or accuracy in
processing relevant information.
The hypotheses guiding the present work state that inhibi-
tory processes are compromised in older adults and that this
compromise produces age-related deficits in selective attention.
In the context of a model of attention that links the orienting
response with the allocation of attention and habituation with
the inhibition of the allocation of attention, the data reported
here are consistent with notions of age-related inhibitory de-
cline. We interpret the fact that the older adult groups did not
differ in habituation rates because of their inability to effi-
ciently prioritize the allocation of attentional resources. That is,
the older adults in the ignore condition were less able to inhibit
responding to the irrelevant stimuli than were the young adults.
This interpretation is consistent with other physiological evi-
dence for age-related central nervous system changes in inhibi-
tory function, such as that coming from electrophysiological
studies (see Woodruff-Pak, 1988, for a review), and is also con-
sistent with a variety of existing behavioral data (see McDowd,
1990, for a review). The role of inhibitory function in age differ-
ences in performance is becoming a focus of much attention,
and more work needs to be done to fix the limits of inhibitory
phenomena. That is, the domains for which it is and is not a
theoretically useful construct must be identified and explored.
The present work takes one such step in that direction.
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Received November 29,1990
Revision received June 5,1991
Accepted June 11,1991 •