Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Department of Neuropsychology and Rehabilitation Psychology, Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands; Visual Attention Lab, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Visual Attention Lab, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; Departments of Ophthalmology & Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Vision Res. 2021 Sep;186:87-102. doi: 10.1016/j.visres.2021.05.001. Epub 2021 May 29.
The prevalence and reward-value of targets have an influence on visual search. The strength of the effect of an item's reward-value on attentional selection varies substantially between individuals and is potentially sensitive to aging. We investigated individual and age differences in a hybrid foraging task, in which the prevalence and value of multiple target types was varied. Using optimal foraging theory measures, foraging was more efficient overall in younger than older observers. However, the influence of prevalence and value on target selections was similar across age groups, suggesting that the underlying cognitive mechanisms are preserved in older age. When prevalence was varied but target value was balanced, younger and older observers preferably selected the most frequent target type and were biased to select another instance of the previously selected target type. When value was varied, younger and older observers showed a tendency to select high-value targets, but preferences were more diverse between individuals. When value and prevalence were inversely related, some observers showed particularly strong preferences for high-valued target types, while others showed a preference for high-prevalent, albeit low-value, target types. In younger adults, individual differences in the selection choices correlated with a personality index, suggesting that avoiding selections of low-value targets may be related to reward-seeking behaviour.
目标的出现频率和奖励价值对视觉搜索有影响。个体之间对物品奖励价值的注意力选择的影响强度差异很大，并且可能对衰老敏感。我们在混合觅食任务中调查了个体和年龄差异，其中多个目标类型的出现频率和价值都有所不同。使用最佳觅食理论措施，在年轻观察者中，觅食的总体效率高于老年观察者。然而，在年龄组之间，出现频率和价值对目标选择的影响相似，这表明在老年中保留了潜在的认知机制。当出现频率变化但目标价值平衡时，年轻和老年观察者更喜欢选择最常见的目标类型，并偏向于选择先前选择的目标类型的另一个实例。当价值变化时，年轻和老年观察者倾向于选择高价值的目标，但个体之间的偏好更为多样化。当价值和出现频率成反比时，一些观察者对高价值目标类型表现出特别强烈的偏好，而另一些观察者则偏好高出现频率但价值较低的目标类型。在年轻成年人中，选择选择的个体差异与人格指数相关，这表明避免选择低价值的目标可能与寻求奖励的行为有关。
