title: Aging and the visual perception of exocentric distance.
abstract: The ability of 18 younger and older adults to visually perceive exocentric distances was evaluated. The observers judged the extent of fronto-parallel and in-depth spatial intervals at a variety of viewing distances from 50cm to 164.3cm. Most of the observers perceived in-depth intervals to be significantly smaller than fronto-parallel intervals, a finding that is consistent with previous studies. While none of the individual observers' judgments of exocentric distance were accurate, the judgments of the older observers were significantly more accurate than those of the younger observers. The precision of the observers' judgments across repeated trials, however, was not affected by age. The results demonstrate that increases in age can produce significant improvements in the visual ability to perceive the magnitude of exocentric distances.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Ogden College of Science and Engineering, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101-2030, United States. Electronic address: Farley.Norman@wku.edu.
authors.forename: J Farley
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Norman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Ogden College of Science and Engineering, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101-2030, United States.
authors.forename: Olivia C
authors.initials: OC
authors.lastname: Adkins
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Ogden College of Science and Engineering, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101-2030, United States.
authors.forename: Hideko F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Norman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Ogden College of Science and Engineering, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101-2030, United States.
authors.forename: Andrea G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Ogden College of Science and Engineering, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101-2030, United States.
authors.forename: Connor E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Rogers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D004215:Distance Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Aging; Perceived distance; Visual space