Age-Group Differences in Saccadic Interference

We examined age-group differences in a saccadic interference task, which requires that participants execute a saccade (eye movement) toward an abrupt-onset visual target presented to the right or left of fixation. On some trials, we imposed diffuse interference by bilateral (top and bottom) flashes of light presented 20 to 210 ms after target onset. When the flashes followed the cue at shorter intervals, time to execute a saccade was slowed relative to no-flash trials. This slowing was greater and sustained over a larger cue–flash interval for older participants than for the young participants. The results indicate that, when diffuse distractors are used, older adults are more susceptible to saccade disruption than are young adults. A S we move through the world, the visual field is con-tinually changing. We often must fixate the portion of the visual field that is most salient to our immediate goals, while resisting the ‘‘automatic’ ’ attraction of other objects. For ex-ample, while navigating a bicycle through rush-hour city traffic, a cyclist must monitor parked cars for opening doors and the oncoming lane for turning cars, while simultaneously resisting the urge to fixate shiny coinlike objects on the road. This control over eye movements (oculomotor control) is also ex