Longitudinal Age Changes in Vigilance Over An Eighteen Year Interval

Abstract

An 18-year longitudinal repeat of the Mackworth Clock vigilance experiment was conducted. Skin potential response latencies (SPRL) and reaction times were taken from 33 men during the vigilance task. The longitudinal change in this study reproduced the earlier cross-sectional relationship. The 51 to 69 year olds showed faster reaction times, the 70 to 88 year olds showed slower reaction times and, the 70 to 88 year olds detected significantly fewer targets than when 18 years younger. It was found that the greater the change noted in this study reflected previously determined cross-sectional SPRL effect. However, the SPRL outcome was equivocated by a time-of-measurement effect. It was concluded that at about age 70 years a noticeable reduction in vigilance performance occurs, and this is accompanied by a reduction in autonomic and central nervous system reactivity.

Selection for vigilance assignments: a review and proposed new direction

“…An extensive longitudinal study by Quilter et al (1983), in which observers were tested over a period of several years, suggested that there was a marked fall in detection efficiency at or around the age of 70 years. However, this finding was not confirmed in a later longitudinal study by Giambra and Quilter (1988) in which age differences in detection accuracy were not observed.…”

Age and extent of surgery affect attention in women treated for breast cancer

“…Aging has been associated with declines in CDA in healthy, cognitively intact, older individuals in a number of experimental studies. Older adults (Ն 65 years old) had more difficulty than younger adults in attending to a stimulus in the presence of distraction (Madden, 1986;Rabbitt, 1965;Rogers, 1992), were less able to ignore distracting stimuli when performing various tasks (Barr & Giambra, 1990;McDowd & Filion, 1992;Zacks & Hasher, 1994), and were less able to sustain directed attention in an effortful task over time (Quilter, Giambra, & Benson, 1983). These findings suggest that aging is associated with loss of efficiency in directing attention, particularly when experiencing multiple demands or high distraction.…”

The impact of the demographic transition on manufacturing

“…The six reasons on which, for instance, Welford (1977) bases his model were drawn from laboratory experiments. These experiments imply, for instance, that older subjects show a decreased ability to:control technical processes (“vigilance effect” Quilter et al , 1983, significant from 70 years on! );memorise meaningless syllables (Macht and Buschke, 1983); andrecognise unfamiliar faces (Ferris et al , 1980).…”

“…control technical processes (“vigilance effect” Quilter et al , 1983, significant from 70 years on! );…”