Redundancy gain and coactivation in bimodal detection: evidence for the preservation of coactive processing in older adults.
Previous investigations of adult age differences in the redundant signals effect suggest that both older and younger adults benefit from the presentation of redundant information. However, age deficits in divided attention may cause older adults to process redundant information in a different manner. In the present experiment, we tested between two competing explanations for the redundant signals effect: separate activation and coactivation. To investigate this issue, we used a bimodal detection task in which the auditory signal was a 1000-Hz tone and the visual signal was an asterisk. Both age groups showed significant violations of Miller's race model inequality, providing evidence for coactivation. These results suggest that, despite age-related deficits in divided attention, the ability to coactivate information from bimodal signals is spared with increased age.
Bucur
Barbara
B
Department of Psychology, The University of Akron, Ohio, USA. bb@geri.duke.edu
Allen
Philip A
PA
Sanders
Raymond E
RE
Ruthruff
Eric
E
Murphy
Martin D
MD
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention; D001307:Auditory Perception; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D014796:Visual Perception