The diffusion decision model (DDM) has been used to investigate the effects of aging on information processing in simple response time (RT) tasks. These analyses have consistently shown that the age-related slowing of RTs can be accounted for by slower processing speed in sensorimotor systems and more cautious responding. However, previous DDM assessments of aging have ignored conflict tasks (e.g., the flanker task), the dominant paradigm for investigating age-related differences in executive control, as the DDM is unable to combine task-relevant and task-irrelevant stimulus information. Our study used two recently developed extensions of the DDM-the diffusion model for conflict tasks (DMC) and the shrinking spotlight diffusion model (SSP)-to provide the first model-based assessment of age-related differences in a flanker task featuring a manipulation of the spacing between target and flanking letters. Consistent with previous findings, older adults were globally slower than younger adults, and the magnitude of the flanker effect was larger for older than younger adults only when the spacing between the target and flanking letters was small. Fits of the models to data revealed a superiority of the DMC over the SSP. The DMC accounts for experimental findings with a 62-ms slowing of the nondecision component of RT for older compared to younger adults, a more cautious decision criterion, and enhanced processing of the target and flanking letters in the near periphery, suggesting a stronger attentional engagement in the task. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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弗兰克任务中衰老影响的扩散模型分析。

扩散决策模型（DDM）已用于研究老化对简单响应时间（RT）任务中信息处理的影响。这些分析一致地表明，与年龄有关的RT减慢可以归因于感觉运动系统中较慢的处理速度和更谨慎的响应。但是，以前的DDM老化评估忽略了冲突任务（例如侧翼任务），这是调查与执行相关的年龄相关差异的主要范例，因为DDM无法合并与任务相关和与任务无关的激励信息。我们的研究使用了DDM的两个最近开发的扩展-用于冲突任务的扩散模型（DMC）和缩小的聚光灯扩散模型（SSP）-来提供基于模型的侧翼任务中年龄相关差异的第一个基于模型的评估，该操作具有操纵性目标字母和侧面字母之间的间距。与以前的研究结果一致，老年人在总体上比年轻人慢，并且仅当目标字母与旁侧字母之间的间距较小时，老年人的侧翼效应才比年轻人大。模型对数据的拟合显示出DMC优于SSP。DMC解释了实验结果，与年轻人相比，老年人的RT的不确定因素减慢了62毫秒，这是更为谨慎的决定标准，并增强了对目标和近端侧翼字母的处理能力，这表明该任务上的注意力更加集中。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2020 APA，保留所有权利）。