The Attentional Boost Effect in Older Adults: Examining the Vulnerable Boost Hypothesis

The Attentional Boost Effect (ABE) occurs whenever participants recognize stimuli paired earlier with to-be-responded targets better than stimuli earlier paired with to-be-ignored distractors or presented on their own (baseline). Previous studies showed that the ABE does not occur in older adults when the encoding time is too short (500 ms/word) or when encoding is incidental, likely due to aging-related reductions in cognitive resources or limitations of processing speed.