ABSTRACT

Mild functional difficulties associated with cognitive aging may be reliably measured by coding “micro-errors” during everyday tasks, like meal preparation. Micro-errors made by 25 older adult and 48 younger adults were coded on four dimensions to evaluate the influence of: 1) poor error monitoring; 2) goal decay; 3) competition for response selection when switching to a new subtask; and 4) interference from distractor objects. Micro-errors made by young adults under a dual task load also were analyzed to determine the influence of overall performance level. Older adults’ micro-errors were observed when switching to a new subtask and to unrelated distractors. Slowed error monitoring and goal decay also influenced micro-errors in older adults, but not significantly more so than younger adults under the dual task. Interventions to reduce interference from distractors and to increase attention at critical choice points during tasks may optimize everyday functioning and preclude decline in older adults.

摘要

与认知老化相关的轻度功能障碍可以通过在日常任务（如进餐）中编写“微错误”来可靠地测量。25个年龄较大的成年人和48个较年轻的成年人所犯的微错误在四个维度上进行了编码，以评估以下方面的影响：1）错误的错误监控；2）目标衰减；3）切换到新的子任务时竞争选择响应；4）干扰物体的干扰。还分析了年轻人在双重任务负载下产生的微错误，以确定总体性能水平的影响。当切换到新的子任务和无关的干扰物时，会观察到老年人的微错误。缓慢的错误监控和目标衰减也影响了老年人中的微错误，但在双重任务下，其影响并不比年轻人显着得多。