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Peer-reviewedCC BYPsychological research

Dissociating task, semantic, and response conflict in cognitive aging: evidence from a low-cognitive control Stroop paradigm.

  • Eldad Keha1,2,3
  • Maria Augustinova4
  • Ludovic Ferrand5
  • Eyal Kalanthroff6
6 affiliations
  1. 1Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel. [email protected].
  2. 2Department of Social and Health Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel. [email protected].
  3. 3Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Washington University in Saint Louis, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. [email protected].
  4. 4Université de Rouen Normandie, Centre de Recherche sur les Fonctionnements et Dysfonctionnements Psychologiques, Mont-Saint-Aignan, France.
  5. 5Université Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, LAPSCO, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
  6. 6Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel.
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Abstract

Cognitive aging is often associated with increased Stroop interference, but it remains unclear whether this reflects a broad decline in inhibitory control or selective impairments in specific conflict-resolution mechanisms. The present study examined age-related differences in task conflict, semantic conflict, and response conflict using a low-cognitive-control Stroop paradigm designed to amplify conflict effects. Younger and older adults completed a manual color-identification task including neutral shapes, neutral words, color-associated words, non-response-set incongruent color words, and response-set incongruent color words. This design allowed us to dissociate response conflict, two components of semantic conflict, and task conflict within a single paradigm. Older adults showed larger response conflict than younger adults, along with modest age-related increases in both semantic relevance and semantic relatedness. In contrast, task conflict did not differ between age groups. These results suggest that age-related increases in Stroop interference are not best explained by a single global inhibitory deficit. Rather, under the present manual-response, reduced-control conditions, older adults showed greater semantic and response-level conflict, whereas task conflict remained comparable across age groups. This dissociation is consistent with a more fine-grained account of cognitive control in aging.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{keha2026dissociating,
  title = {{Dissociating task, semantic, and response conflict in cognitive aging: evidence from a low-cognitive control Stroop paradigm.}},
  author = {Eldad Keha and Maria Augustinova and Ludovic Ferrand and Eyal Kalanthroff},
  journal = {Psychological research},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1007/s00426-026-02399-y},
  url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42886379},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Dissociating task, semantic, and response conflict in cognitive aging: evidence from a low-cognitive control Stroop paradigm.
AU  - Eldad Keha
AU  - Maria Augustinova
AU  - Ludovic Ferrand
AU  - Eyal Kalanthroff
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/16
JO  - Psychological research
DO  - 10.1007/s00426-026-02399-y
UR  - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42886379
AB  - Cognitive aging is often associated with increased Stroop interference, but it remains unclear whether this reflects a broad decline in inhibitory control or selective impairments in specific conflict-resolution mechanisms. The present study examined age-related differences in task conflict, semantic conflict, and response conflict using a low-cognitive-control Stroop paradigm designed to amplify conflict effects. Younger and older adults completed a manual color-identification task including neutral shapes, neutral words, color-associated words, non-response-set incongruent color words, and response-set incongruent color words. This design allowed us to dissociate response conflict, two components of semantic conflict, and task conflict within a single paradigm. Older adults showed larger response conflict than younger adults, along with modest age-related increases in both semantic relevance and semantic relatedness. In contrast, task conflict did not differ between age groups. These results suggest that age-related increases in Stroop interference are not best explained by a single global inhibitory deficit. Rather, under the present manual-response, reduced-control conditions, older adults showed greater semantic and response-level conflict, whereas task conflict remained comparable across age groups. This dissociation is consistent with a more fine-grained account of cognitive control in aging.
SN  - 0340-0727
SN  - 1430-2772
ER  -