title: Selective attention and visual search: revision of an allocation model and application to age differences.
abstract: The present experiments examined a revised version of the Eriksen and Yeh model of attentional allocation during visual search. The results confirmed the assumption of the model that performance represents a weighted combination of focused- and distributed-attention trials, although Ss relied on focused attention more than was predicted. Consistent with the model, predictions on the basis of the assumption of a terminating search fit the data better than predictions on the basis of an exhaustive search. The effects of varying cue validity favored an interpretation of focused attention in terms of a processing gradient rather than a zoom lens. Although the allocation of attention across trials was similar for young and older adults, there was an age-related increase in the time required to allocate attention within individual trials.
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina 27710.
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Madden
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D011601:Psychophysics; D011930:Reaction Time