Adult age differences in the rate of information extraction during visual search.

We investigated adult age differences in the function relating accuracy to speed during visual-search performance. Twenty-four young adults between 17 and 26 years of age, and 24 older adults between 59 and 75 years of age, participated. The level of accuracy at which performance was first improved by increasing RT was higher for older adults than for young adults. Independently of this age difference in accuracy, however, a significant age-related slowing was present in the rate of information extraction during visual-search performance.