Scientific Reports · 2 authors, 2 centres
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A drift-diffusion model analysis of 346 younger and older adults across four retro-cue tasks showed that retro-cues improved evidence quality, reduced retrieval time, and changed response conservativeness in both age groups. Only the retro-cue boost for evidence quality showed an age-related decline, and this parameter was the sole indicator of individual differences in focusing efficiency.
Retro-cues improved accuracy and reduced reaction times for both age groups across all tasks. The diffusion model revealed three retro-cue benefits: increased evidence quality (drift rate), reduced memory retrieval time (non-decision time), and altered response conservativeness. An age-related decline was observed only in the retro-cue boost for evidence quality, meaning older adults showed a smaller attentional improvement in the quality of information driving the decision process. This drift-rate retro-cue effect was the only parameter capturing individual differences in focusing efficiency.
