Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 53, Issue 5 P318-P323, Copyright © 1998 by The Gerontological Society of America
Spatial cuing in a stereoscopic display: attention remains "depth- aware" with age
P Atchley and AF Kramer
Beckman Institute, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. [email protected]
Previous research has demonstrated that spatial attention is "depth-
aware": Reaction times (RT) are greater for shifts in depth and two-
dimensional (2-D) space than in 2-D space alone. This experiment examined
whether the ability to focus attention at a depth location is maintained
with advanced age. Twelve younger and 12 older observers viewed
stereoscopic displays in which one of four spatial locations was cued. Two
of the locations were at a near depth location and two were at a far depth
location. When the focus of visual attention was shifted to a new location
in space (because of an invalid cue), the cost in RT for switching
attention (measured as the difference between RT on valid cue and invalid
cue trials) was greater when observers had to switch attention between
different depth locations and different locations in 2-D space than for
shifts in 2-D space alone. This effect was observed for both younger and
older observers, suggesting that the ability to orient attention to a depth
location is maintained with age.
