Age differences in divided attention in a simulated driving task.
The ability of young, middle-aged, and old adults to divide attention was examined using a dual task experiment involving two continuous performance tasks. The first task was a compensatory tracking task modeled after the important everyday activity of car driving. The second task was a self-paced visual choice-reaction time task requiring analysis of a small visual display presented in such a way that no eye movements were required when the two tasks had to be performed simultaneously. Single-task difficulty was individually adjusted for each subject. Performance-Operating-Characteristics were used to control for individual differences in attention allocation strategies. Even when individual differences in single task performance were adequately controlled for, elderly adults showed a significantly decreased ability to divide attention when compared with young and middle-aged adults. Young and middle-aged adults did not differ in the ability to divide attention.
Ponds
R W
RW
Department of Neuropsychology and Psychobiology, State University Limburg, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Brouwer
W H
WH
van Wolffelaar
P C
PC
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001334:Automobile Driving; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008875:Middle Aged; D011597:Psychomotor Performance