Effects of Age, Gender, Activation, Stimulus Degradation and Practice on Attention and Visual Choice Reaction Time

Abstract

This paper presents research conducted by the authors and others investigating the interaction of a variety of variables which are presumed to affect reaction time in hopes of obtaining much needed information on factors influencing age effects on attention and information processing. Reported is progress to date on an experiment which shows that the effects of age on central nervous system speed, as measured by visual choice reaction time, depends on many factors, including the gender, neural activation level, and skill of the subject as well as the stimulus quality and type of reaction task employed.