Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access
Open Access Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Restricted Access Subscription Access

Adult Age Differences in Exogenous Orienting of Vigilance Task Performance


Affiliations
1 Department of Psychology, Vasanta Collage for Women, Varanasi, UP, India
2 Government Inter College, Uttar Pradesh, India
     

   Subscribe/Renew Journal


Attention plays crucial role in our daily life activities. Variety of behavioral inefficiencies during old age may result due to age related changes in attention. Among cognitive changes which accompany healthy ageing, changes in attentional ability is the fundamental one. Vigilance performance tends to decline as the age increases. Orienting attention towards a particular location leads to better processing of information at that location thereby improving performance. Previous studies have shown improvement in vigilance performance when the paradigm of orienting was combined with vigilance. Present study examined the age difference in vigilance performance when the attention was oriented exogenously, using spatial cueing paradigm. Cues were presented at peripheral location at stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 300ms. Target and non-target was the square of size 3.3 cm 3.0 cm respectively. The participant's task was to pay attention to the cue and then to make a speeded decision about the presence or absence of the target by pressing the response key. A 2 (Age Group: Young and Old) x 3 (Cue validity: valid, invalid and neutral) x 3 (Time period: 3 Blocks of 10 min. each) analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measure on last two factor. Correct detection (hits), incorrect detection (F.A.) and reaction time were recorded as performance measures. Results revealed that performance was facilitated under valid cue condition for both young and old adults. Overall detection was more for young adults while vigilance decrement was more for older adults than young adults. It further indicated qualitative difference on vigilance performances in young and old adults.

Keywords

Age Differences, Vigilance Task Performance.
Subscription Login to verify subscription
User
Notifications
Font Size


Abstract Views: 421

PDF Views: 1




  • Adult Age Differences in Exogenous Orienting of Vigilance Task Performance

Abstract Views: 421  |  PDF Views: 1

Authors

Richa Singh
Department of Psychology, Vasanta Collage for Women, Varanasi, UP, India
Anurag Upadhaya
Government Inter College, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract


Attention plays crucial role in our daily life activities. Variety of behavioral inefficiencies during old age may result due to age related changes in attention. Among cognitive changes which accompany healthy ageing, changes in attentional ability is the fundamental one. Vigilance performance tends to decline as the age increases. Orienting attention towards a particular location leads to better processing of information at that location thereby improving performance. Previous studies have shown improvement in vigilance performance when the paradigm of orienting was combined with vigilance. Present study examined the age difference in vigilance performance when the attention was oriented exogenously, using spatial cueing paradigm. Cues were presented at peripheral location at stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 300ms. Target and non-target was the square of size 3.3 cm 3.0 cm respectively. The participant's task was to pay attention to the cue and then to make a speeded decision about the presence or absence of the target by pressing the response key. A 2 (Age Group: Young and Old) x 3 (Cue validity: valid, invalid and neutral) x 3 (Time period: 3 Blocks of 10 min. each) analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measure on last two factor. Correct detection (hits), incorrect detection (F.A.) and reaction time were recorded as performance measures. Results revealed that performance was facilitated under valid cue condition for both young and old adults. Overall detection was more for young adults while vigilance decrement was more for older adults than young adults. It further indicated qualitative difference on vigilance performances in young and old adults.

Keywords


Age Differences, Vigilance Task Performance.