Effects of stimulus integrality on visual attention in older and younger adults: a quantitative model-based analysis

Psychol Aging. 1998 Sep;13(3):472-85. doi: 10.1037//0882-7974.13.3.472.

Abstract

Twenty-one older and 21 younger adults were administered a series of visual attention tasks. A series of quantitative models was applied to each observer's data to determine whether he or she performed optimally or suboptimally or showed a deficit-in-attentional processing. The results suggested that (a) older and younger observers were affected equally by the integrality-separability manipulation, (b) there are no age-related differences in selective attention performance for either integral or separable-dimension stimuli, (c) there are no age-related differences in dimensional integration performance with separable-dimension stimuli, and (d) older observers were more likely to be suboptimal when asked to integrate information from integral-dimension stimuli. Implications for current theories of attentional processing in normal aging are discussed.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Aging / psychology*
  • Attention*
  • Discrimination Learning
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Orientation
  • Pattern Recognition, Visual*
  • Psychophysics
  • Reaction Time
  • Size Perception