Priming of Pop-out in Visual Search: A Comparison of Young and Old Adults

Jason S. McCarley, Arthur F. Kramer, Angela M. Colcombe, Charles T. Scialfa
2004 Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition  
An experiment examined potential age-related differences in priming of pop-out (implicit, memory-based phenomenon that facilitates repeated gaze or attention shifts between visually similar stimuli. Older and younger adults performed a visual search task requiring them to judge the orientation of a color singleton target. Trial-totrial repetition of target color and/or target position primed attentional selection for both age groups, producing faster and more accurate responses. Age-related
more » ... eases in the strength of priming by target color appeared to arise from generalized slowing in older observers', but marginal age-related increases in the strength of priming by target position remained even after transformation to account for generalized slowing.
doi:10.1076/anec.11.1.80.29362 fatcat:wjnmw4iydbdz5miefiiwwkkgbi