Lifespan changes in attention: The visual search task Export

@article{citeulike:3460025, abstract = {There are two popular frameworks for the study of visual attention. Treisman's Feature Integration Theory focuses on the effortful process of binding together the multiple attributes of an object. Posner's Visual Orienting Theory emphasizes the movement of an attentional spotlight across space. Although both aspects are undoubtedly important in any visual search task, it is not clear how each of these aspects changes with age. We tested observers aged 6, 8, 10, 22, and 72 years on visual search tasks designed to isolate these factors. No age-related differences were found in single- or double-feature discrimination, attention movement to a single item, or search for a single-feature target among distractors. Two age-related changes were found: (1) young children were less able than either young adults or seniors to search for targets defined by a conjunction of features, and (2) both children and seniors were less able than young adults to move attention voluntarily from item to item. This implies that feature integration and voluntary movement of attention have different trajectories over the lifespan.}, author = {Trick, L.}, citeulike-article-id = {3460025}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2014(98)90016-8}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0885-2014(98)90016-8}, doi = {10.1016/S0885-2014(98)90016-8}, issn = {08852014}, journal = {Cognitive Development}, keywords = {aging, attention, visual-search}, month = {September}, number = {3}, pages = {369--386}, posted-at = {2008-10-29 12:43:24}, priority = {4}, title = {Lifespan changes in attention: The visual search task}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2014(98)90016-8}, volume = {13}, year = {1998} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:3460025 L3 - citeulike-article-id:3460025 N2 - There are two popular frameworks for the study of visual attention. Treisman's Feature Integration Theory focuses on the effortful process of binding together the multiple attributes of an object. Posner's Visual Orienting Theory emphasizes the movement of an attentional spotlight across space. Although both aspects are undoubtedly important in any visual search task, it is not clear how each of these aspects changes with age. We tested observers aged 6, 8, 10, 22, and 72 years on visual search tasks designed to isolate these factors. No age-related differences were found in single- or double-feature discrimination, attention movement to a single item, or search for a single-feature target among distractors. Two age-related changes were found: (1) young children were less able than either young adults or seniors to search for targets defined by a conjunction of features, and (2) both children and seniors were less able than young adults to move attention voluntarily from item to item. This implies that feature integration and voluntary movement of attention have different trajectories over the lifespan. IS - 3 JF - Cognitive Development SN - 08852014 EP - 386 TI - Lifespan changes in attention: The visual search task VL - 13 SP - 369 KW - aging KW - attention KW - visual-search AU - Trick, L PY - 1998/09// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0885-2014(98)90016-8 ER -