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Perceptual factors affecting age‐related differences in focused attention: Performance and psychophysiological analyses
Author(s) -
ZEEF ELLY J.,
SONKE CORINE J.,
KOK ALBERT,
BUITEN MEREL M.,
KENEMANS J. LEON
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1996.tb02432.x
Subject(s) - psychology , perception , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , neuroscience
In this study, the impact of two perceptual factors, feature similarity and spacing, on age‐related differences in performance and psychophysiological measures were investigated within a focused attention paradigm. Young and old subjects performed an Eriksen letter identification task, in which centrally presented targets were flanked by response‐compatible or response‐incompatible letters. In feature similarity conditions, targets and flankers had a low or high amount of feature overlap. In spacing conditions, flankers were presented at four different lateral positions from the target. In the condition with high feature overlap and shortest target‐flanker distance, old subjects showed greater interference by incompatible flankers than young subjects. Feature similarity was of little influence on age‐related differences. However, spacing turned out to be of critical importance. Age‐related interference effects disappeared when the target‐flanker distance increased. This appears to be due to a decrease in response competition.