TIME-COURSE OF ALLOCATION OF VISUAL-ATTENTION AFTER EQUATING FOR SENSORY DIFFERENCES - AN AGE-RELATED PERSPECTIVE

Adult age differences in the time course of the allocation of visual a ttention were investigated, in 2 experiments that both included the sa me 10 younger adults (M = 22 years) and 10 older adults (M = 68 years) . In Experiment 1, older adults accumulated information about target i dentity at a slower rate than younger adults, as represented by the ri se in accuracy as a function of target duration. To equate performance in a baseline condition in a spatial-cuing paradigm (Experiment 2), t arget duration was set for each observer on the basis of the data in E xperiment 1. Performance for the 2 age groups was comparable, both in the baseline condition and in the time course of attention, as indexed by the function relating accuracy to cue-target onset asynchrony. The authors conclude that, in this spatial-cuing paradigm, an age-related change is evident in sensory processing but not in attentional alloca tion.