Checking it Twice: Age-related Differences in Double Checking During Visual Search.

Visual search is an integral part of functioning in everyday life and a primary component of some occupational tasks. Older adults typically exhibit longer response times on visual search tasks compared to younger adults. Mechanisms proposed as explanations of these age-related differences include general slowing of the speed of information processing, amount of internal noise, attentional capacity, selective attention, and inhibition. This study evaluated the possibility that age-related differences in visual search may be partly due to older adults double checking to a greater degree than younger adults. Older adults did in fact double check more so than younger adults. Moreover, speed stress instructions reduced double checking behavior as well as age-related differences in double checking.