Age-related reduction in 3-D visual motion priming.
In 3 experiments, younger and older adults judged the perceived motion of three-dimensional (3-D) figures that rotated in depth either unambiguously or ambiguously. Both groups were found to be equivalent in judging the direction of single rotations of the simulated 3-D objects (Experiment 1). In Experiments 2 and 3, a single unambiguous rotation (prime) was followed 0-3200 ms later by an ambiguous rotation (target). Motion priming was indicated by the disambiguation of the second rotation by the first rotation. 3-D motion priming was initially found to be similar in young and old, but it rapidly reduced in the older participants compared to the younger ones. Using a nonluminance depth cue--occlusion--to induce 3-D motion, diminished contrast sensitivity in the elderly was ruled out as a cause of the reduced priming. The results show that 3-D motion priming exhibits robust age-related decline. An age-related decrease in temporal persistence may account for the reduction in 3-D motion priming in older adults.
Jiang
Y
Y
Cognitive Science Laboratory, Catholic University of America, USA. yang_jiang@nih.gov
Greenwood
P M
PM
Parasuraman
R
R
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014888:Wechsler Scales