Jefferies Lisa N, Roggeveen Alexa B, Enns James T, Bennett Patrick J, Sekuler Allison B, Di Lollo Vincent
School of Psychology and Exercise Science, Murdoch University, 90 South Street, Murdoch, WA, 6150, Australia,
Psychol Res. 2015 Jan;79(1):28-41. doi: 10.1007/s00426-013-0528-2. Epub 2013 Dec 15.
Many sensory and cognitive changes accompany normal ageing, including changes to visual attention. Several studies have investigated age-related changes in the control of attention to specific locations (spatial orienting), but it is unknown whether control over the distribution or breadth of attention (spatial focus) also changes with age. In the present study, we employed a dual-stream attentional blink task and assessed changes to the spatial distribution of attention through the joint consequences of temporal lag and spatial separation on second-target accuracy. Experiment 1 compared the rate at which attention narrows in younger (mean age 22.6, SD 4.25) and older (mean age 66.8, SD 4.36) adults. The results showed that whereas young adults can narrow attention to one stream within 133 ms, older adults were unable to do the same within this time period. Experiment 2 showed that older adults can narrow their attention to one stream when given more time (266 ms). Experiment 3 confirmed that age-related changes in retinal illuminance did not account for delayed attentional narrowing in older adults. Considered together, these experiments demonstrate that older adults can narrow their attentional focus, but that they are delayed in initiating this process compared to younger adults. This finding adds to previously reported reductions in attentional dynamics, deficits in inhibitory processes, and reductions in posterior parietal cortex function that accompany normal ageing.
许多感觉和认知变化都伴随着正常衰老，包括视觉注意力的变化。几项研究调查了与年龄相关的在对特定位置的注意力控制（空间定向）方面的变化，但尚不清楚对注意力的分布或广度（空间焦点）的控制是否也会随着年龄而变化。在本研究中，我们采用了双流注意瞬脱任务，并通过时间滞后和空间分离对第二个目标准确性的联合影响来评估注意力空间分布的变化。实验1比较了年轻人（平均年龄22.6岁，标准差4.25）和老年人（平均年龄66.8岁，标准差4.36）注意力变窄的速度。结果表明，年轻人能够在133毫秒内将注意力集中到一个信息流上，而老年人在此时间段内无法做到同样的事情。实验2表明，给予更多时间（266毫秒）时，老年人能够将注意力集中到一个信息流上。实验3证实，与年龄相关的视网膜照度变化并不能解释老年人注意力集中延迟的现象。综合来看，这些实验表明，老年人能够缩小他们的注意力焦点，但与年轻人相比，他们在启动这一过程时会延迟。这一发现进一步证明了在正常衰老过程中，先前报道的注意力动态变化减少、抑制过程缺陷以及顶叶后皮质功能减退。
