title: Visual search for change in older adults.
abstract: Previous research has demonstrated that younger adults are surprisingly poor at detecting substantial changes to visual scenes. Little is known, however, about age differences in this phenomenon. In the 2 experiments reported here, older adults were slower than younger adults in detecting changes to simple visual stimuli. This age difference was beyond what would be expected given known age-related changes in processing speed. Examination of eye movement behavior during the search for change suggested that age-related changes in the useful field of view and degree of cautiousness play a significant role. Speed of processing and 3 age-related eye movement behaviors explained 85% of the variance in change detection latency, eliminating the effect of age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Washington University, St Louis, MO 63130, USA.
authors.forename: Lori L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Veiel
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Storandt
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Abrams
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011930:Reaction Time; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D014792:Visual Acuity; D014796:Visual Perception