Working memory and its relation to interference and facilitation effects on a Stroop task in persons with mild cognitive impairments and normal elderly adults

The current study investigated working memory(WM) and its relation to interference and facilitation effects using a Stroop-like token task in persons with mild cognitive impairments(MCI) and normal elderly adults(NEA). Both groups demonstrated interference effects. MCI group showed greater interference effects than NEA in the accuracy analysis. The results are consistent with the previous findings (Belleville et al., 2010). Both groups showed no facilitation effects in the accuracy rate. However, they showed longer response times in 75%Congruent than neutral condition. Among WM measures, subtract-2 span task was most highly correlated with the incongruent trials of 75%Congruent condition with the highest cognitive demands