Purpose <p>Irritability has been conceptualized as cognitive control deficits and emotional dysfunction; however, a developmentally specified pathophysiological model is needed for precise theoretical guidance. This study aimed to examine the associations of irritability with response inhibition, attentional bias, and reward responsivity across childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood to explore age-related differences.</p> Method <p>A total of 116 participants (irritability: 57 high, 59 low; age: 35 children, 41 adolescents, 40 adults) completed the monetary incentive delay task, dot-probe task, and go/no-go task to assess reward processing, attentional bias for threat and response inhibition, respectively. MINI interview was used to determine the diagnosis of affective disorders.</p> Results <p>Children showed higher threat related attentional bias variability, and lower accuracy on both go and no-go trials than adolescents and adults, while adults reported more arousal levels than children and adolescents following both reward receipt and reward anticipation. The main effects of irritability were significant for go and no-go correct accuracy, with higher irritability associated with poorer performance. Interaction of age and irritability was significant for no-go accuracy and showed marginal significance for arousal changes during reward feedback and anticipation. Specifically, irritable children showed prominently reduced response inhibition, while irritable adolescents reported lower reward-related arousal changes relative to non-irritable peers, but no significant effects of irritability were observed in adults. Affective disorder diagnoses and clinical symptom severity were unrelated to performance across tasks.</p> Conclusion <p>These findings suggest distinct cognitive and emotional mechanisms underlie irritability across development and future research should explore underlying neurocognitive changes.</p>