TY - JOUR
T1 - Age slowing down in detection and visual discrimination under varying presentation times
AU - Moret-Tatay, Carmen
AU - Lemus-Zúñiga, Lenin Guillermo
AU - Tortosa, Diana Abad
AU - Gamermann, Daniel
AU - Vázquez-Martínez, Andrea
AU - Navarro-Pardo, Esperanza
AU - Conejero, J. Alberto
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
PY - 2017/8
Y1 - 2017/8
N2 - The reaction time has been described as a measure of perception, decision making, and other cognitive processes. The aim of this work is to examine age-related changes in executive functions in terms of demand load under varying presentation times. Two tasks were employed where a signal detection and a discrimination task were performed by young and older university students. Furthermore, a characterization of the response time distribution by an ex-Gaussian fit was carried out. The results indicated that the older participants were slower than the younger ones in signal detection and discrimination. Moreover, the differences between both processes for the older participants were higher, and they also showed a higher distribution average except for the lower and higher presentation time. The results suggest a general slowdown in both tasks for age under different presentation times, except for the cases where presentation times were lower and higher. Moreover, if these parameters are understood to be a reflection of executive functions, these findings are consistent with the common view that age-related cognitive deficits show a decline in this function.
AB - The reaction time has been described as a measure of perception, decision making, and other cognitive processes. The aim of this work is to examine age-related changes in executive functions in terms of demand load under varying presentation times. Two tasks were employed where a signal detection and a discrimination task were performed by young and older university students. Furthermore, a characterization of the response time distribution by an ex-Gaussian fit was carried out. The results indicated that the older participants were slower than the younger ones in signal detection and discrimination. Moreover, the differences between both processes for the older participants were higher, and they also showed a higher distribution average except for the lower and higher presentation time. The results suggest a general slowdown in both tasks for age under different presentation times, except for the cases where presentation times were lower and higher. Moreover, if these parameters are understood to be a reflection of executive functions, these findings are consistent with the common view that age-related cognitive deficits show a decline in this function.
KW - age-related differences
KW - discrimination
KW - distribution components
KW - Signal detection
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85021843157&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/sjop.12372
DO - 10.1111/sjop.12372
M3 - Article
C2 - 28670767
AN - SCOPUS:85021843157
SN - 0036-5564
VL - 58
SP - 304
EP - 311
JO - Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
JF - Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
IS - 4
ER -