title: Age-related effects in inter-trial inhibition of attention.
abstract: Young and older adults indentified the shape of a color oddball in a visual search task, and both showed faster and more accurate responses when the distractor color was passively viewed in the preceding target-absent trial than when the target color was previewed. This inter-trial effect, known as the distractor previewing effect (DPE), reflects an attentional bias that prevents attention from focusing on recently inspected features that failed to produce a target. The results showed that the DPE pattern was preserved across the lifespan, and that the age-related increase in the magnitude of the DPE appeared rooted in age-related slowing, suggesting substantial sparing of this inhibitory effect in old age.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. wanxa@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn
authors.forename: Xiaoang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Voss
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lleras
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D003118:Color Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult