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Cognitive aging is a mosaic of selective deficits and spared abilities. To account for such discrepancies, it has been assumed that age-related differences in memory tasks were mainly observed in conditions that require executive control and activation of the prefrontal cortex. The present theoretical note examines this frontal hypothesis by contrasting a strong and a weak version. The strong version explains memory declines in normal aging by a specific deficit of inhibition mechanisms. The weak version invokes more general links between some strategic memory processes and executive control. The note proceeds in three steps. First, it briefly surveys the different formulations of the hypothesis, which focus on various aspects of human cognition. Second, it considers the diversity of inhibition mechanisms and of memory processes. Third, it examines empirical evidence about age-related changes in memory performance and executive functions : analysis of individual differences, experimental investigations, and studies using neuro- imagery techniques. In conclusion, the literature does not support tentative explanations of cognitive aging that rely on a single factor called inhibitory deficit.
