Aging, probabilistic learning and performance monitoring.

This study examined age-related alterations in electrocortical indices of performance monitoring in a probabilistic learning situation. The results showed differences between younger and older adults in the modulation of response- and feedback-related negativities by feedback validity. In younger adults, the error-related negativity/error negativity (ERN/Ne) was larger than the correct response-related negativity (CRN) in the high and medium feedback validity condition, whereas the feedback-related negativity (FRN) differentiated between positive and negative feedback in the low feedback validity condition. In older adults, amplitudes of the ERN/Ne and the CRN were dissociated only in the high feedback validity condition and the FRN did not differ between positive and negative feedback. This finding might suggest that performance monitoring is more prone to interference by probabilistic information in older adults. Further, the salience of negative feedback seems reduced with age.

Pietschmann M ，Endrass T ，Czerwon B ，Kathmann N ... -  《-》

Better or worse than expected? Aging, learning, and the ERN.

Eppinger B ，Kray J ，Mock B ，Mecklinger A ... -  《NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA》

Changes of performance monitoring with learning in older and younger adults.

Pietschmann M ，Simon K ，Endrass T ，Kathmann N ... -  《PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY》

Age-related alterations in performance monitoring during and after learning.

Changes of performance monitoring during and after learning of stimulus-response (S-R) associations were examined in younger and older adults using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). To determine whether age-related differences in performance monitoring are attenuated when learning performance is equalized between age groups, participants learned S-R associations until they reached a learning criterion. After completed learning, time pressure was introduced to assess whether time pressure pronounces age-related differences in performance monitoring. In the initial learning phase, performance monitoring was unspecific, indicated by similar-sized ERN/Ne (error-related/error negativity) and CRN (correct response-related negativity) amplitudes. With advanced learning, ERN/Ne and CRN amplitudes dissociated in younger participants, suggesting error-specific performance monitoring, whereas in older participants, performance monitoring remained unspecific. However, after completed learning and under time pressure, larger ERN/Ne than CRN amplitudes were observed in older participants, too. This finding suggests that error-specific performance monitoring develops with learning in younger, but not necessarily in older adults. The administration of time pressure seemed to force older adults to monitor error responses more specifically.

Pietschmann M ，Endrass T ，Kathmann N 《-》

Feedback-related processes during a time-production task in young and older adults.

Wild-Wall N ，Willemssen R ，Falkenstein M 《-》