Questions of age differences in interference control: When and how, not if?

Declines in the control of attention and working memory are often considered a core feature of cognitive aging. In particular, the idea that older adults are differentially vulnerable to interference from irrelevant information has played an important but sometimes controversial role in guiding research. However, age differences in performance on measures of interference control are sometimes surprisingly small, and in some cases (e.g., mind-wandering and sustained attention), older adults perform better than young adults. Are age differences in interference control more myth than reality? We consider the evidence in light of neurocognitive frameworks that acknowledge the sometimes complex interactions between age-related declines and compensation. When operations can be performed within the focus of attention, age differences in interference control may be more easily detected in neural measures than behavioral ones, whereas behavioral differences are more likely to occur in tasks that require retrieval of information into the focus. Our analysis suggests that age differences in interference control have multiple sources, but also offer multiple opportunities for compensation and intervention. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Memory & Aging.