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Perceptual Processing and Search Efficiency of Young and Older Adults in a Simple-Feature Search Task

A Staircase Approach

^a School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

Elizabeth Thorpe Davis, School of Psychology 0170, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332-0170 E-mail: ed15{at}prism.gatech.edu.

Decision Editor: Margie E. Lachman, PhD

The reasons that visual search may sometimes be difficult, especially for older adults, remain important research issues. This study investigated (a) whether age-related differences can occur in simple-feature search, (b) if so, whether slowing adequately accounts for these differences, (c) whether other perceptual/cognitive factors are involved, and (d) the role of perceptual strategies. The authors tested 15 young adults (ages 18–30) and 15 older adults (ages 65–78). The target was a red disc presented among red diamonds in an array of 16 or 36 items. The forced-choice staircase procedure emphasized perceptual processing while deemphasizing decision-making and psychomotor processing. Although perceptual slowing may affect older adults' search performance, the perceptual slowing model is not simple, and other perceptual/cognitive factors, such as spatial resolution and distractibility, also are implicated. Moreover, perceptual strategies involving perceptual grouping or suppression of distractors play a key role in explaining why search efficiency is actually better for the larger set size.

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