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Beth K Rush

Publications and source records attributed to Beth K Rush.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Context processing and context maintenance in healthy aging and early stage dementia of the Alzheimer's type.

Declines in the ability to process context information may represent a fundamental mechanism of age-related cognitive changes. Two components of context processing--activation/updating and maintenance--were examined in a sample of healthy younger and older adults, along with individuals suffering from early stage dementia of the Alzheimer's type (DAT). All older adult groups showed context activation/updating impairments, whereas context maintenance was only impaired in the oldest adults (age>75 years) and was further exacerbated in DAT individuals. The results suggest that context processing may be composed of functionally dissociable components and point to the utility of this construct in understanding the timecourse of cognitive decline in healthy and pathological aging.

Adolescent↗

Accounting for cognitive aging: context processing, inhibition or processing speed?

Age-related deficits in context processing were examined in relationship to two predominant theories of cognitive aging (the Inhibitory Deficit and Processing Speed Models). Older and younger adults completed a measure of context processing (AX Continuous Performance Test (CPT) task) as well as a computerized battery of inhibitory tasks: Stroop, garden path sentences, go no-go, and the stop-signal paradigm. Participants also completed a simple processing speed task. After controlling for baseline differences in processing speed, age effects were detected on the AX-CPT. Smaller, but significant age effects were noted on the Stroop and stop-signal tasks, but no significant age effects were found on the garden path sentence and go no-go tasks. Intertask correlations were weak, providing little evidence for a homogenous or uniform construct of inhibition. The sensitivity of the AX-CPT to cognitive aging is discussed in the context of existing theories of cognitive aging. The authors suggest that deficits in context processing and utilization may underlie cognitive aging phenomena.

Adult↗