title: Age differences in contingency judgement linked to perceptual segregation.
abstract: We demonstrate large differences in judging positive and null contingencies between younger and older adults with a task commonly used to explore cue competition in both contingency and causality judgements. The one-phase blocking task uses two cues, with separate contingencies with the same outcome. The age differences persisted even when participants knew in advance which of the two contingencies to judge. The age differences disappeared, however, when the stimulus display contained markers aiding perceptual segregation. We suggest that the age differences elicited in the one-phase blocking task are linked to decrements in perceptual segregation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada. hannah.sam@gmail.com
authors.forename: Samuel D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Hannah
authors.forename: Lorraine G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Allan
authors.forename: Meredith E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Young
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001288:Attention; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009949:Orientation; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult