Perceptual organization and selective attention: Age-related effects

The research dealing with age-related deficits in driving performance has suggested that changes in visual selective attention are related to changes in driving performance with age. The research reported here seeks to complement past research by investigating age-related changes in facets of visual selection attention that have not been thoroughly investigated to date. The thrust of the present research is to determine the extent of age-related differences in the use of aspects of the visual environment to facilitate the processing of task-relevant stimuli; age related differences that are independent of physical changes in the optic system. More specifically, the first study considers age-related differences in the use of color and proximity to facilitate the recall of stimulus sets. The next three studies address whether there are age-related differences in the use of featural information in determining the presence or absence of a target in a multi-element display.U of I OnlyETDs are only available to UIUC Users without author permissio