Derrick G Watson, Elizabeth A Maylor, Lucy A M Bruce
{"title":"Effects of age on searching for and enumerating targets that cannot be detected efficiently.","authors":"Derrick G Watson, Elizabeth A Maylor, Lucy A M Bruce","doi":"10.1080/02724980443000511","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>We investigated the effects of old age on search, subitizing, and counting of difficult-to-find targets. In Experiment 1, young and older adults enumerated targets (Os) with and without distractors (Qs). Without distractors, the usual subitization-counting function occurred in both groups, with the same subitization span of 3.3 items. Subitization disappeared with distractors; older adults were slowed more overall by their presence but enumeration rates were not slowed by ageing either with or without distractors. In contrast, search rates for a single target (O among Qs) were twice as slow for older as for young adults. Experiment 2 tested and ruled out one account of age-equivalent serial enumeration based on the need to subvocalize numbers as items are enumerated. Alternative explanations based on the specific task differences between detecting and enumerating stimuli are discussed.</p>","PeriodicalId":77437,"journal":{"name":"The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology","volume":"58 6","pages":"1119-42"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2005-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/02724980443000511","citationCount":"23","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/02724980443000511","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 23
Abstract
We investigated the effects of old age on search, subitizing, and counting of difficult-to-find targets. In Experiment 1, young and older adults enumerated targets (Os) with and without distractors (Qs). Without distractors, the usual subitization-counting function occurred in both groups, with the same subitization span of 3.3 items. Subitization disappeared with distractors; older adults were slowed more overall by their presence but enumeration rates were not slowed by ageing either with or without distractors. In contrast, search rates for a single target (O among Qs) were twice as slow for older as for young adults. Experiment 2 tested and ruled out one account of age-equivalent serial enumeration based on the need to subvocalize numbers as items are enumerated. Alternative explanations based on the specific task differences between detecting and enumerating stimuli are discussed.