Despite several meta-analyses suggesting that age differences in attentional control are "greatly exaggerated," there have been multiple reports of disproportionate age differences in the Stroop effect. The Stroop task is widely accepted as the gold standard for assessing attentional control and has been critical in comparisons across development and in studies of neuropsychological patient groups. However, accounting for group differences in processing speed is a notorious challenge in interpreting reaction time (RT) data. Within the aging literature, prior meta-analyses have relied on Brinley and State-Trace techniques to account for overall processing speed differences in evaluating the effects of within-participant manipulations. Such analyses are based on mean performance per group per study and have been criticized as potentially being insensitive to within-participant manipulations. In order to further examine possible age differences in Stroop performance, we amassed a dataset from 33 different computerized, color-naming Stroop task studies with available trial-level data from 2,896 participants. We conducted meta-regression analyses on a wide set of dependent measures that control for general slowing, tested for publication bias, and examined four potential methodological moderators. We also conducted linear mixed-effect modeling allowing the intercept to vary randomly for each participant, thereby accounting for individual differences in processing speed. All analyses, with the exception of the Brinley and State-Trace techniques, produced clear evidence supporting a disproportionate age difference in the Stroop effect above and beyond the effects of general slowing. Discussion highlights the importance of trial-level data in accounting for group differences in processing speed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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重新研究Stroop效应中的年龄差异：森林中树木的重要性（情节）。

尽管有数项荟萃分析表明注意力控制中的年龄差异“被大大夸大了”，但已有许多报道称Stroop效应的年龄差异不成比例。Stroop任务已被广泛认为是评估注意力控制的金标准，并且在整个发展过程中的比较以及对神经心理学患者群体的研究中都至关重要。但是，在解释反应时间（RT）数据时，考虑处理速度上的组差异是一个臭名昭著的挑战。在老化的文献中，先前的荟萃分析依靠Brinley和State-Trace技术来评估参与者参与操作的效果时整体处理速度的差异。此类分析基于每项研究每组的平均表现，并被批评为对参与者内部操作不敏感。为了进一步检查Stroop表现可能存在的年龄差异，我们使用来自2,896名参与者的可用试验级数据，收集了来自33种不同的计算机化，颜色命名的Stroop任务研究的数据集。我们对控制总体放慢的一系列相关度量进行了元回归分析，测试了出版偏倚，并研究了四个潜在的方法论主持人。我们还进行了线性混合效应建模，允许每个参与者的截距随机变化，从而解决了处理速度方面的个体差异。所有分析，除了布林利（Brinley）技术和状态追踪技术（State-Trace）之外，产生了清晰的证据，证明Stroop效应的年龄差异超出一般的减速效应。讨论强调了试验级数据在解决处理速度上的组差异方面的重要性。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2021 APA，保留所有权利）。