Watson C S, Turpenoff C M, Kelly W J, Botwinick J
J Gerontol. 1979 Jul;34(4):547-52. doi: 10.1093/geronj/34.4.547.
Current theories of aging suggest that at least part of the decline in performance on psychophysical tasks, commonly observed in older subjects, may be the result of their becoming more cautious about sensory decisions. This conclusion has been supported by experiments in which the criterion index, beta, from signal detection theory is shown to be higher (indicating a strict criterion) for older subjects. A weight-discrimination experiments is reported which failed to replicate the earlier results; older subjects' criteria were the same or more lax than those of younger controls on that task. The possibility that extreme caution on the part of older people may be specific to certain classes of task is discussed.
当前的衰老理论表明，在老年受试者中普遍观察到的心理物理学任务表现下降，至少部分原因可能是他们在感觉决策上变得更加谨慎。这一结论得到了实验的支持，在这些实验中，信号检测理论中的标准指数β显示在老年受试者中更高（表明标准更严格）。本文报告了一项重量辨别实验，该实验未能重复早期的结果；在该任务中，老年受试者的标准与年轻对照组相同或更宽松。文中讨论了老年人极端谨慎可能特定于某些任务类别的可能性。
