AGE-RELATED-CHANGES IN PSYCHOMOTOR PERFORMANCE

The purpose of this investigation was to assess the influence of age r elative to the response to changes in task difficulty within the perfo rmance of a discrete pursuit tracking task by adults from 20-89 years old. The results obtained suggest that although there was a significan t age-related decrement in psychomotor performance, it was most preval ent in the 70-79 and 80-89 years age group. However, the data were qui te stable across the younger age groups: 20-60 years. Hence, although providing support for the contention of age-related decrements in psyc homotor performance with increasing age, this investigation indicates that the decrements may not be as dramatic or immediate as some studie s may have previously implied.