Assessing behavioral control across the adult lifespan using a novel outcome revaluation task

While many studies have investigated the effects of aging on cognition, relatively few have examined aging impacts on habitual behavioral control. To assess these relationships, 151 adults across the lifespan (47.09 ± 17.17 years old, range = 19-80) completed a novel instrumental outcome revaluation task, where participants made keyboard responses to abstract stimuli to gain digital currency before completing a revaluation test where the outcome of one stimulus was negatively altered while the other retained its value. Participants also completed questionnaires relating to psychiatric symptoms. Habitual responding was measured in terms of the response rate to the revalued stimulus relative to the response rate to the stimulus that was not revalued. There were significant positive effects of obsessive-compulsive symptoms and significant negative effects of depressive symptoms on habitual behavior. In addition, results revealed a modest effect of chronological age on habitual behavior These results indicate subtle changes in behavioral control across the adult lifespan and support previous work showing that certain psychological measures including obsessive-compulsive symptoms are associated with increased habitual responding.