TY - JOUR
T1 - Aging and Visual Masking
T2 - Sensory and Attentional Factors
AU - Atchley, Paul
AU - Hoffman, Lesa
PY - 2004/3
Y1 - 2004/3
N2 - Visual tasks can yield quantitatively similar patterns of performance that reflect different underlying mechanisms in younger and older observers. In 3 experiments, we used the visual masking task of J. T. Enns and V. Di Lollo (1997) to examine 2 of these mechanisms: stimulus contrast and attention. Performance appeared to be equivalent for younger and older observers in some circumstances, although manipulation of contrast and attention suggested that older observers may use focal attention to enhance the perceptual clarity of the target. For older observers, impoverished visual representations may more readily be eliminated by manipulation of attention or by the presence of a mask, indicating that both attention and stimulus quality are important influences on performance.
AB - Visual tasks can yield quantitatively similar patterns of performance that reflect different underlying mechanisms in younger and older observers. In 3 experiments, we used the visual masking task of J. T. Enns and V. Di Lollo (1997) to examine 2 of these mechanisms: stimulus contrast and attention. Performance appeared to be equivalent for younger and older observers in some circumstances, although manipulation of contrast and attention suggested that older observers may use focal attention to enhance the perceptual clarity of the target. For older observers, impoverished visual representations may more readily be eliminated by manipulation of attention or by the presence of a mask, indicating that both attention and stimulus quality are important influences on performance.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=1542723369&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=1542723369&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1037/0882-7974.19.1.57
DO - 10.1037/0882-7974.19.1.57
M3 - Article
C2 - 15065931
AN - SCOPUS:1542723369
SN - 0882-7974
VL - 19
SP - 57
EP - 67
JO - Psychology and Aging
JF - Psychology and Aging
IS - 1
ER -