Normal aging is associated with a reduction in the selectivity of cognitive processes such as attention and memory. This loss of selectivity is attributed to diminished inhibition and cognitive control mechanisms in older adults, which render them more susceptible to distraction and more likely to attend to and encode irrelevant information. However, motivational selectivity appears largely preserved in aging. For example, older adults selectively avoid high‐demand tasks, exhibit a positivity bias in attention and memory, and show better memory for high‐value compared to low‐value information. The aim of this review is to integrate these seemingly paradoxical findings of reduced and preserved selectivity in aging, discuss potential neural mechanisms, and propose questions for future research.

中文翻译：

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健康衰老中的认知和动机选择性。

正常衰老与诸如注意力和记忆力之类的认知过程的选择性降低有关。这种选择性的丧失归因于老年人抑制和认知控制机制的减弱，这使他们更容易分散注意力，更可能关注和编码无关的信息。然而，动机选择性似乎在衰老中得以保留。例如，与低价值信息相比，老年人选择性地避免了高要求的工作，在注意力和记忆力方面表现出积极的偏见，并且对高价值的信息表现出更好的记忆力。这篇综述的目的是整合这些在衰老中选择性降低和保留的看似矛盾的发现，讨论潜在的神经机制，并提出未来研究的问题。