The effect of age and individual differences in attentional control: A sample case using the Hayling test

Inhibition in the emotional Hayling task: can hypnotic suggestion enhance cognitive control on a prepotent negative word?

Recent studies suggest that instrumental hypnosis is a useful experimental tool to investigate emotional and language processing effects. However, the capacity of hypnotic suggestions to intervene during the response inhibition of emotional words remains elusive. This study investigated whether hypnotic suggestion can improve the inhibition of prepotent negative word responses in an emotional Hayling sentence completion task. High-suggestible participants performed a computerised emotional Hayling task. They were first asked to select the appropriate words ending highly predictable sentences among two propositions (initiation part), and then to select the filler words that did not end the sentences correctly (inhibition part). Half of the expected final words had a negative emotional valence, while the other half was neutral. The task was performed in a control condition (without suggestion) and with a hypnotic suggestion to decrease emotional reactivity. The results revealed that hypnotic suggestion (compared to the control condition) hastened response times on negative final words in the inhibition part, showing that hypnotic suggestion can enhance cognitive control over prepotent negative word responses in a sentence completion task. We suggest that this modulation stems from a reduction in the emotional relevance of the final words caused by the hypnotic suggestion.

Executive function abilities in cognitively healthy young and older adults-A cross-sectional study

A prominent feature of cognitive aging is the decline of executive function (EF) abilities. Numerous studies have reported that older adults perform poorer than younger adults in such tasks. In this cross-sectional study, the effect of age on four EFs, inhibition, shifting, updating, and dual-tasking, was examined in 26 young adults (mean 21.18  years) and 25 older adults (mean 71.56  years) with the utilization of a pair of tasks for each EF. The tasks employed for DT were the Psychological Refractory Period paradigm (PRP) and a modified test for everyday attention, for inhibition the Stroop and Hayling sentence completion test (HSCT), for shifting a task switching paradigm and the trail making test (TMT), and for updating the backward digit span (BDS) task and a n-back paradigm. As all participants performed all tasks, a further aim was to compare the size of the age-related cognitive decline among the four EFs. Age-related decline was observed in all four EFs in one or both of the tasks employed. The results revealed significantly poorer performance in the older adults in the response times (RTs) of the PRP effect, interference score of the Stroop, RT inhibition costs of the HSCT, RT and error-rate shifting costs of the task switching paradigm, and the error-rate updating costs of the n-back paradigm. A comparison between the rates of decline revealed numerical and statistically significant differences between the four EFs, with inhibition showing the greatest decline, followed by shifting, updating, and dual-tasking. Thus, we conclude that with age, these four EFs decline at different rates.

Informational Masking and Listening Effort in Speech Recognition in Noise: The Role of Working Memory Capacity and Inhibitory Control in Older Adults With and Without Hearing Impairment

PURPOSE

The study aimed to assess the relationship between (a) speech recognition in noise, mask type, working memory capacity (WMC), and inhibitory control and (b) self-rated listening effort, speech material, and mask type, in older adults with and without hearing impairment. It was of special interest to assess the relationship between WMC, inhibitory control, and speech recognition in noise when informational maskers masked target speech.

METHOD

A mixed design was used. A group (N = 24) of older (M_age = 69.7 years) individuals with hearing impairment and a group of age normal-hearing adults (M_age = 59.3 years, SD = 6.5) participated in the study. The participants were presented with auditory tests in a sound-attenuated room and with cognitive tests in a quiet office. The participants were asked to rate listening effort after being presented with energetic and informational background maskers in two different speech materials used in this study (i.e., Hearing In Noise Test and Hagerman test). Linear mixed-effects models were set up to assess the effect of the two different speech materials, energetic and informational maskers, hearing ability, WMC, inhibitory control, and self-rated listening effort.

RESULTS

Results showed that WMC and inhibitory control were of importance for speech recognition in noise, even when controlling for pure-tone average 4 hearing thresholds and age, when the maskers were informational. Concerning listening effort, on the other hand, the results suggest that hearing ability, but not cognitive abilities, is important for self-rated listening effort in speech recognition in noise.

CONCLUSIONS

Speech-in-noise recognition is more dependent on WMC for older adults in informational maskers than in energetic maskers. Hearing ability is a stronger predictor than cognition for self-rated listening effort.

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL

https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21357648.

The Contribution of Age, Working Memory Capacity, and Inhibitory Control on Speech Recognition in Noise in Young and Older Adult Listeners

Purpose The study aimed to investigate the relationship between speech recognition in noise, age, hearing ability, self-rated listening effort, inhibitory control (measured with the Swedish Hayling task), and working memory capacity (WMC; measured with the Reading Span test). Two different speech materials were used: the Hagerman test with low semantic context and Hearing in Noise Test sentences with high semantic context, masked with either energetic or informational maskers. Method A mixed design was used. Twenty-four young normally hearing (M _age = 25.6 years) and 24 older, for their age, normally hearing individuals (M _age = 60.6 years) participated in the study. Speech recognition in noise in both speech materials and self-rated effort in all four background maskers were correlated with inhibitory control and WMC. A linear mixed-effects model was set up to assess differences between the two different speech materials, the four different maskers used in the study, and if age and hearing ability affected performance in the speech materials or the various background noises. Results Results showed that high WMC was related to lower scores of self-rated listening effort for informational maskers, as well as better performance in speech recognition in noise when informational maskers were used. The linear mixed-effects model revealed differences in performance between the low-context and the high-context speech materials, and the various maskers used. Lastly, inhibitory control had some impact on performance in the low-context speech material when masked with an informational masker. Conclusion Different background noises, especially informational maskers, affect speech recognition and self-rated listening effort differently depending on age, hearing ability, and individual variation in WMC and inhibitory control.

Initiation, Inhibition and Strategy Generation Across the Healthy Adult Lifespan

OBJECTIVE

Executive functions are crucial for adaptive behavior in novel contexts. In healthy aging, these abilities are more sensitive to dysfunction than other cognitive abilities. The effect of aging on initiation, inhibition, and strategy use was investigated via performance on the Hayling Sentence Completion Test.

METHOD

The standard Hayling Test and baseline cognitive tests were administered to healthy adults (N = 344), aged 18-89 years (cross-sectional study). Bivariate Pearson's correlations, partial correlations, and regression analyses were used to assess the impact of aging on the components of the Hayling Test.

RESULTS

There were significant positive correlations between age and response time for both Initiation and Suppression, and the number of Suppression Errors. Further, older age was negatively associated with strategy use. These findings remained significant after controlling for demographic factors such as education and crystallized intelligence and other cognitive functions sensitive to aging such as fluid intelligence, attention, working memory and semantic and phonemic word fluency.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides clarification of the effect of age on the processes of initiation, inhibition, and strategy generation across the adult lifespan. The focus and analysis of strategy on the Hayling Test provides clinicians with an additional and valuable measure of executive functioning. That is, it provides insight into how older adults may be able to compensate for decline in these processes, and thus maximize quality of life and independence.

Swedish Version of the Hayling Test: Clinical Utility in Frontotemporal Dementia Syndromes

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of a Swedish version of the Hayling test (HT-S) and its clinical utility in a group of patients with different frontotemporal dementia (FTD) syndromes. Early diagnosis of FTD is a challenge and requires a broad arsenal of assessment methods, neuropsychological tests not the least. The Hayling test assesses executive functions including initiation, efficiency and response inhibition.

METHODS

Seventy-six healthy controls were included as well as patients with the behavioral variant FTD (bvFTD; n = 17), semantic dementia (SD, n = 6), and progressive supranuclear palsy (n = 12). The Color Word Interference Test was administered to examine the construct validity.

RESULTS

Age showed a correlation with better performances in younger participants whereas the importance of sex and education were less evident. The split half reliability and internal consistency were equal to, or better, than reported for the original version. The interrater reliability was excellent. The construct validity was supported, nevertheless indicating partly different processes behind the performances of the two tests. The FTD group performed significantly worse than healthy controls on efficiency and response inhibition and there were also significant differences in performances between the syndromes despite small samples.

CONCLUSIONS

The psychometric properties and clinical utility of the Swedish version are satisfactory for measuring efficiency and response inhibition with results indicating dissimilar profiles in the performances in the different syndromes. These results need to be corroborated in larger samples. (JINS, 2019, 25, 195-203).

Emotional valence impacts lexical activation and inhibition differently in aging: an emotional Hayling task investigation

BACKGROUND

Aging is characterized by cognitive changes such as a potential inhibition deficit. However, growing evidence shows that positive valence stimuli enhance performances in older adults to a greater degree than in younger adults. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of the emotional valence of words on lexical activation and inhibition in aging by using a new Emotional Hayling Task.

METHODS

Thirty-eight younger adults (mean age = 20.11 years) and 38 older adults (mean age = 66.47 years) performed a computerized Emotional Hayling task. Participants had to choose the correct (initiation part) or incorrect (inhibition part) final words of highly predictable incomplete sentences. Final words had a negative or positive emotional valence and were paired for reaction time comparison with neutral words.

RESULTS

Response times were faster in younger adults than in older adults in both the initiation and the inhibition parts. In addition, response times indicated that older adults initiated more slowly negative than neutral words while no differences emerged in inhibition. No differences were obtained between negative and neutral words in younger adults. Response times showed faster initiation and inhibition for positive than for neutral words in both age groups.

CONCLUSION

These data are consistent with previous findings suggesting a disengagement from the processing of negative versus neutral words in older adults when compared with younger adults. A possible explanation is that activation of negative words in the mental lexicon is weaker in older than in younger adults. Conversely, the positive valence of words seems to enhance both activation and inhibition processes in both young and older adults. These findings suggest that positive stimuli can improve performance.

Brazilian norms and effects of age and education on the Hayling and Trail Making Tests

Abstract Objectives To describe normative data for the Hayling Test and the Trail Making Test (TMT) in a sample of Brazilian adults, and to investigate the effects of age and education on test performance. Method A total of 313 (TMT) and 364 (Hayling) individuals with age ranges of 19-39, 40-59, and 60-75 years, and with at least 5 years of formal education, participated in this study. The tests were administered as part of a large battery of a normative project. Individuals were evaluated individually in silent, ventilated rooms at a university clinic. Instrument protocols were scored by trained research assistants and double-checked to ensure data reliability. Results There were major effects of age on the TMT (Time B, Errors B, B-A) and on the Hayling Test (Errors B/15, B/45), and major effects of education on the TMT (Time B, Errors B, B-A) and on the Hayling Test (Time A, Errors B/15, B/45). Interaction effects were found in Time B and B-A for the Hayling Test and in Time A for the TMT. Conclusions Age and education were critical for performance on both verbal and non-verbal executive functions.

Age and Semantic Inhibition Measured by the Hayling Task: A Meta-Analysis

Objective

Cognitive aging is commonly associated with a decrease in executive functioning (EF). A specific component of EF, semantic inhibition, is addressed in the present study, which presents a meta-analytic review of the literature that has evaluated the performance on the Hayling Sentence Completion test in young and older groups of individuals in order to assess the magnitude of the age effect.

Method

A systematic search involving Web of Science, PsyINFO, PsychARTICLE, and MedLine databases and Google Scholar was performed. A total of 11 studies were included in this meta-analysis, encompassing a total of 887 participants; 440 young and 447 older adults. The effect sizes for group differences on four measures of the Hayling test, latency responses and error scores on the Automatic and Inhibition sections of the test were calculated using the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software package.

Results

The results revealed large age effects for response latencies in both the Automatic (Hedges' g = 0.81) and Inhibitory conditions (Hedges' g = 0.98), though the latter two effect sizes did not differ from each other. In contrast, analysis of errors revealed a significant difference between the small effect seen in the Automatic condition (Hedges' g = 0.13) relative to the moderate effect seen in the Inhibition condition (Hedges' g = 0.55).

Conclusions

These results may be important for a better understanding of the inhibitory functioning in elderly individuals, although they should be interpreted with caution because of the limited number of studies in the literature to date.

The Swedish Hayling task, and its relation to working memory, verbal ability, and speech-recognition-in-noise

Cognitive functions and speech-recognition-in-noise were evaluated with a cognitive test battery, assessing response inhibition using the Hayling task, working memory capacity (WMC) and verbal information processing, and an auditory test of speech recognition. The cognitive tests were performed in silence whereas the speech recognition task was presented in noise. Thirty young normally-hearing individuals participated in the study. The aim of the study was to investigate one executive function, response inhibition, and whether it is related to individual working memory capacity (WMC), and how speech-recognition-in-noise relates to WMC and inhibitory control. The results showed a significant difference between initiation and response inhibition, suggesting that the Hayling task taps cognitive activity responsible for executive control. Our findings also suggest that high verbal ability was associated with better performance in the Hayling task. We also present findings suggesting that individuals who perform well on tasks involving response inhibition, and WMC, also perform well on a speech-in-noise task. Our findings indicate that capacity to resist semantic interference can be used to predict performance on speech-in-noise tasks.

Age differences in verbal and visuo-spatial working memory updating: evidence from analysis of serial position curves

Memory updating is the ability to select and update relevant information and suppress no-longer-relevant data. The few studies in this area, targeting mainly the verbal domain, have investigated and confirmed an age-related decline in working memory updating ability (De Beni & Palladino, 2004; Van der Linden, Bredart, & Beerten, 1994). The present research examines the ability of younger and older adults to update information in verbal and visuo-spatial running memory tasks. Results showed that the participants' performance was higher in the verbal than in the visuo-spatial task. Nonetheless, independently of the task domain, an age-related decline in updating performance was found. Moreover, analysis of serial positions suggested that, in the updating procedure, the participants were not attempting to actively maintain items, preferring to adopt a low-effort, "recency-based" strategy. The use of this type of strategy is more evident in older participants, as shown in both the accuracy performance and the proportion of intrusion errors.