Why is it so hard to break a habit? One set of our projects examines how behavior changes when individuals have to resist a "strong but wrong" habitual response. We are studying how performance is different in these conditions compared to conditions where people do not have a habitual response. We are particularly interested in which aspects of these tasks may be especially difficult for older adults. We are also interested in how these differences may affect our ability to switch attention between different rules or situations.

            Another project examines how young and older adults differ in their ability to pay attention to a single task. Are older adults more likely to "zone out" when performing a task? Are older adults more susceptible to distraction when trying to focus on a single task? We are interested in examining how age-related changes in how we pay attention are related to an unusual pattern of brain activity often seen in older adults.

Visit our other projects:

Why do we forget? Memory Training Sustained AttentionEmotion RecognitionAcetylcholine & Control

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2006 Lustig Lab