EFFECT OF AGE ON ATTENTIONAL CONTROL IN DUAL-TASKING
EFFECT OF AGE ON ATTENTIONAL CONTROL IN DUAL-TASKING
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DOI：
10.1080/0361073x.2017.1276377
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发表时间：
2017-01-01
影响因子：
1.8
通讯作者：
Belleville, Sylvie
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Bier, Bianca;Lecavalier, Nick Corriveau;Belleville, Sylvie
背景/研究背景：注意力分散和注意力控制方面的年龄差异与以后生活中的一些负面结果有关。然而，关于这些年龄差异的性质以及注意力控制能力在双重任务中的作用，仍有许多问题没有得到解答。本研究的目的是评估双重任务中年龄差异的来源，更具体地说：（1）是否由于注意力控制技能的差异而发生，或者（2）双重任务中与年龄相关的递减是否由于一般资源减少而影响完成任何要求高的任务的能力。在两个实验中，年轻人和老年人被要求结合联合收割机的听觉数字跨度任务和视觉空间跟踪任务，其中性能分别调整每个任务。在实验1中，注意控制技能的测量，指导参与者故意改变注意力优先级之间的两个任务。在实验2中，通过改变视觉空间跟踪任务的难度水平，通过增加目标的速度被tracked.Results的参数化方式来测量资源的可用性：这两个实验证实了存在一个更大的双任务成本在老年人比年轻人。在实验1中，老年参与者无法改变他们的表现，根据任务的指示相比，年轻的成年人。实验2表明，年龄相关的双任务成本的差异并没有放大的变化，在difficulty.Conclusion：一个显着的年龄相关的差异被发现在控制注意力集中的能力，以响应任务指令。然而，以参数方式增加资源需求并没有增加与年龄相关的双重任务的差异，这表明老年人所经历的困难不能完全归因于对资源的竞争加剧。注意力控制技能的减少被认为是老年人注意力分散的原因。
Background/Study Context: The age-related differences in divided attention and attentional control have been associated with several negative outcomes later in life. However, numerous questions remain unanswered regarding the nature of these age differences and the role of attentional control abilities in dualtasking. The aim of this study was to evaluate the sources for age differences in dual-tasking and more specifically: (1) whether they occur because of differences in attentional control skills, or (2) whether the age-related decrement in dual-tasking is due to a general resource reduction that would affect the ability to complete any demanding task.Methods: In two experiments, young and older adults were required to combine an auditory digit span task and a visuospatial tracking task, for which performance was individually adjusted on each task. In Experiment 1, attentional control skills were measured by instructing participants to deliberately vary attentional priority between the two tasks. In Experiment 2, resource availability was measured by varying the level of difficulty of the visuospatial tracking task in a parametric manner by increasing the speed of the target to be tracked.Results: Both experiments confirmed the presence of a larger dual-task cost in older adults than in young adults. In Experiment 1, older participants were unable to vary their performance according to task instructions compared with younger adults. Experiment 2 showed that the age-related difference in dual-task cost was not amplified by a variation in difficulty.Conclusion: A marked age-related difference was found in the ability to control attentional focus in response to task instructions. However, increasing resource demand in a parametric manner does not increase the age-related differences in dual-tasking, suggesting that the difficulties experienced by older adults cannot be entirely accounted for by an increased competition for resources. A reduction in attentional control skills is proposed to account for the divided attention deficit reported in aging.