External distraction impairs categorization performance in older adults.

Wais, Peter E.; Gazzaley, Adam

doi:10.1037/a0037617

Cited by 14 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 38 publications

(61 reference statements)

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“…Given that this result was only present in OA on the most difficult conditions, we suspect this is most likely reflective of a practice effect. This finding is supported by previous work demonstrating heightened practice effects in OAs compared with younger populations (Wais & Gazzaley, 2014; McCarley, Yamani, Kramer, & Mounts, 2012; Becic, Boot, & Kramer, 2008). Importantly, there were no observed training-related basic motoric speed changes from pretraining to posttraining for any of the participants, suggesting that the observed effects were not due to a generalized augmented motoric speed but rather are indicative of training-based plasticity changes in the attention system.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Enhancing Spatial Attention and Working Memory in Younger and Older Adults

Rolle

Anguera

Skinner

et al. 2017

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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Daily experiences demand both focused and broad allocation of attention for us to interact efficiently with our complex environments. Many types of attention have shown age-related decline, although there is also evidence that such deficits may be remediated with cognitive training. However, spatial attention abilities have shown inconsistent age-related differences, and the extent of potential enhancement of these abilities remains unknown. Here, we assessed spatial attention in both healthy younger and older adults and trained this ability in both age groups for 5 hr over the course of 2 weeks using a custom-made, computerized mobile training application. We compared training-related gains on a spatial attention assessment and spatial working memory task to age-matched controls who engaged in expectancy-matched, active placebo computerized training. Age-related declines in spatial attention abilities were observed regardless of task difficulty. Spatial attention training led to improved focused and distributed attention abilities as well as improved spatial working memory in both younger and older participants. No such improvements were observed in either of the age-matched control groups. Note that these findings were not a function of improvements in simple response time, as basic motoric function did not change after training. Furthermore, when using change in simple response time as a covariate, all findings remained significant. These results suggest that spatial attention training can lead to enhancements in spatial working memory regardless of age.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Enhancing Spatial Attention and Working Memory in Younger and Older Adults

Rolle

Anguera

Skinner

et al. 2017

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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“…The discussion has also highlighted the fact that for older users there are a number of factors that affect their attention which do not seem to affect that of younger adults. The feeling was that younger adults had a greater capacity to deal with distraction (Wais & Gazzaley, 2014) that would appear to link in to the concept of inhibitory processing found in psychology literature (Guerreiro, Murphy, & Van Gerven, 2010). Related to this is that younger adults seemed to have better visual attention in general with wider fields of view whereas for older adults, visual decline and challenges wearing varifocal lenses were reported; factors which were noted as particularly problematic when shifting focus.…”

Section: Topic Areasmentioning

confidence: 95%

Attitudes towards Attention and Aging

Jenkins

Eslambolchilar

Lindsay

et al. 2016

International Journal of Mobile Human Computer Interaction

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Errors in interaction with digital devices are typically blamed on human factors such as poor attention. However, the influence of attention upon the quality of human-device interaction is commonly overlooked in product design. Developers rely on feedback through user centred design, but do developers, typically younger adults, understand what an older user means, or experiences, in terms of “attention” and appreciate that fundamental conceptual and experiential differences may exist? The authors examine differences between older and younger adults' concepts of attention in relation to mobile-device use to inform future development. Two participant groups consisted of 11 younger adults (18-30 years) and 12 older adults (65+ years). Qualitative analyses revealed three themes ‘personal understanding of attention', ‘attention is dependent on...', and ‘impact of ageing'.

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“…One possible explanation is that the limiting factor for orientation discrimination with a matching-to-sample task is not only perceptual processing but also a top-down control of VWM. Compared to younger adults, older adults may be more restricted in their abilities to exploit VWM using top-down control of perceptual processing (Wais & Gazzaley, 2014), but that training allows them to better utilize top-down control of attention (Lien, Ruthruff, & Kuhns, 2008; Madden, 2007). Another possibility is that both cognitive/inhibitory control (Braver, 2012) and training-based facilitation were delayed for older adults relative to younger adults—thereby allowing older adults to show the full potential of the facilitation at the longer (VWM) ISI.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Practice makes it better: A psychophysical study of visual perceptual learning and its transfer effects on aging.

Li¹,

Allen²,

Lien³

et al. 2017

Psychology and Aging

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Previous studies on perceptual learning, acquiring a new skill through practice, appear to stimulate brain plasticity and enhance performance (Fiorentini & Berardi, 1981). The present study aimed to determine (a) whether perceptual learning can be used to compensate for age-related declines in perceptual abilities, and (b) whether the effect of perceptual learning can be transferred to untrained stimuli and subsequently improve capacity of visual working memory (VWM). We tested both healthy younger and older adults in a 3-day training session using an orientation discrimination task. A matching-to-sample psychophysical method was used to measure improvements in orientation discrimination thresholds and reaction times (RTs). Results showed that both younger and older adults improved discrimination thresholds and RTs with similar learning rates and magnitudes. Furthermore, older adults exhibited a generalization of improvements to 3 untrained orientations that were close to the training orientation and benefited more compared with younger adults from the perceptual learning as they transferred learning effects to the VWM performance. We conclude that through perceptual learning, older adults can partially counteract age-related perceptual declines, generalize the learning effect to other stimulus conditions, and further overcome the limitation of using VWM capacity to perform a perceptual task. (PsycINFO Database Record

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External distraction impairs categorization performance in older adults.

Cited by 14 publications

References 38 publications

Enhancing Spatial Attention and Working Memory in Younger and Older Adults

Enhancing Spatial Attention and Working Memory in Younger and Older Adults

Attitudes towards Attention and Aging

Practice makes it better: A psychophysical study of visual perceptual learning and its transfer effects on aging.

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