Withagen Rob, Caljouw Simone R
Center for Human Movement Sciences, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Atten Percept Psychophys. 2011 May;73(4):1216-26. doi: 10.3758/s13414-011-0092-z.
Earlier studies have revealed age-dependent differences in perception by dynamic touch. In the present study, we examined whether the capacity to learn deteriorates with aging. Adopting an ecological approach to learning, the authors examined the process of attunement--that is, the changes in what informational variable is exploited. Young and elderly adults were trained to perceive the lengths of unseen, handheld rods. It was found that the capacity to attune declines with aging: Contrary to the young adults, the elderly proved unsuccessful in learning to detect the specifying informational variables. The fact that aging affects the capacity to attune sets a new line of research in the study of perception and perceptual-motor skills of elderly. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for the ongoing discussions on the ecological approach to learning.
早期研究揭示了动态触觉感知中与年龄相关的差异。在本研究中，我们考察了学习能力是否会随着年龄增长而衰退。作者采用生态学方法研究学习过程，即考察调适过程——也就是所利用的信息变量的变化。对年轻人和老年人进行训练，使其感知未看到的手持杆的长度。结果发现，调适能力会随着年龄增长而下降：与年轻人不同，老年人未能成功学会检测特定的信息变量。衰老影响调适能力这一事实为老年人感知和感知运动技能的研究开辟了新的研究方向。作者讨论了他们的研究结果对当前关于学习生态学方法讨论的启示。
