Zietz Doerte, Hollands Mark
University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, England.
J Mot Behav. 2009 Jul;41(4):357-65. doi: 10.3200/JMBR.41.4.357-366.
The authors quantitatively described gaze behavior of young (n = 10) and older (n = 10) adults during stair negotiation, which is information that is crucial for understanding the underlying visuomotor control of stair walking and the effects of aging on this control. Both age groups spent the majority of time looking at central aspects of the stairs approximately 3 steps ahead. Older adults showed less variability in the extent to which they looked ahead (p < .05), and all participants fixated the stairs for briefer periods during descent as opposed to ascent (p < .001). Older adults fixated stairs significantly longer than did young adults before stepping onto the stairs (p < .05). The authors conclude that adults need central visual information describing future stepping locations and that there are age-related differences in visual sampling that reflect changes in the visuomotor control processes subserving locomotion.
作者定量描述了年轻成年人（n = 10）和年长成年人（n = 10）在上下楼梯过程中的注视行为，这些信息对于理解楼梯行走背后的视觉运动控制以及衰老对该控制的影响至关重要。两个年龄组的大部分时间都在注视前方大约3级台阶的楼梯中心部分。年长成年人向前注视的范围变化较小（p < .05），并且与上楼相比，所有参与者在下楼过程中注视楼梯的时间更短（p < .001）。在踏上楼梯之前，年长成年人注视楼梯的时间明显长于年轻成年人（p < .05）。作者得出结论，成年人需要描述未来步幅位置的中央视觉信息，并且视觉采样存在与年龄相关的差异，这反映了支持运动的视觉运动控制过程的变化。
