Slowing of Strategic and Nonstrategic Processes in a Visual Search Task

Abstract

The fact that response times increase as one ages has long been established. Previous research has indicated that a process-specific model does a better job than the model of general slowing in explaining the differences between older and younger adults. This experiment tested a process-specific model of slowing using older and younger adults in a visual search task. The task manipulated the presence of the target, the number of search items, the structure of the display of the search items, the perceptual quality of the search items and the complexity of the response. It was found that encoding, motor, and decision processes were about equally delayed whereas the comparison process was delayed little if any.