Aging and visual information processing: potential implications for everyday seeing.

A review of research examining the effects of aging on visual perception from the perspective of psychological theories of information processing shows that the average speed of processing for groups of older adults is slower than for groups of young adults in most stages of perceptual processes. However, studies examining the correlation of processing speed between separate stages within individuals shows little evidence of general slowing in the nervous systems of individual elderly subjects. The implications of performance decrements at each stage of visual processing are considered for a variety of everyday seeing activities. It is concluded that age-related decrements in visual selective attention processes offer the greatest threat of impairment to many everyday seeing activities.