Age & Attention

Nota:

• Park & Schwarz (2000) chapter 4

1. Selective Attention

   Nota:

   • Plude & Doussard-Roosevelt (1989)
   1. Cocktail Party Problem
   2. Visual search tasks
   3. Conjunction of features

      Nota:

      • Plude & Doussard-Roosevelt (1989)
   4. Age related differences
   5. Experience & Familiarity

      Nota:

      • medical technicians
2. Focused Attention

   Nota:

   • One principle object comes then into the focus of consciousness, others are temporarily suppressed James, 1950, p. 405)
   1. remains intact with age
   2. Alzheimer's Disease
3. Sustained Attention

   Nota:

   • Bunce & Sisa (2002)
   1. Submarine officer, airport security, assembly line inspector
   2. Clock test

      Nota:

      • Mackworth (1948) WWII
   3. mixed evidence for age differences
   4. Vigilance decrement
4. Age differences attributable to:

   Nota:

   • Park & Schwarz (2000) chapter 4
   1. Discriminability of stimulus
   2. duration of stimulus
   3. WM load
   4. complexity of the task
   5. use of compensating mechanisms?

      Nota:

      • older individuals are compensating their performance by expending greater resources during vigils? - sustained attention (Bunce and Sisa, 2002)
5. Attention switching & divided attention...
   1. age differences for complex tasks
6. Automatic Processing

   Nota:

   • habit diminishes the conscious attention with which our acts are performed. James (1950)
   1. Skill acquisition
   2. Driving
   3. age differences in perceptual learning but not memory dependent
   4. Retainment - Stroop
7. Future Research
8. Implications