VISUAL PROCESSING OF FEATURES AND OBJECTS IN AGING

这个研究项目是关于衰老过程中的视觉感知过程 专注于物体感知。 最初的研究将检查 物体感知的基本机制是否相同 对于年轻人和老年人来说。 一项初步研究表明， 尽管它们在细节上可能不同。 该研究将探讨两个 细节可能不同的地方。 第一个问题是 构成物体的基本感知元素。 第二个是那些知觉特征 组合成物体。 Anne Treisman及其同事的研究 年轻人的感知机制提供了许多 理论和方法的实验。 他们的工作 利用了一个基本现象 目标刺激， 有一个功能不共享的分心刺激将“弹出”的 干扰物，而目标没有唯一的 特征，但与干扰项共享特征，必须 花费了大量的金钱寻找 努力 在一组实验中， 它利用了“弹出”现象， 确定一些可能随着年龄增长而变化的特征。 别人 一系列实验将重点关注特征的形成过程 组合成物体。 因为人们已经注意到 对某些组合过程很重要， 实验的目的是表征的变化， 注意力下降的可能性。 一组这样的 实验将寻找可能减少的数量， 可以作为一个组搜索的项目。 一些一般的知觉 众所周知，组织过程也会影响分组 将特征转化为对象。 另一组实验将检验 这些组织过程的稳定性。 最后，其他认知因素已被证明会影响 年轻人的物体知觉。 一组实验将 研究衰老中的认知变化是否会改变这些 组织对物体感知的影响。 拟议的研究计划将有助于描述 老年人在多大程度上以及在什么情况下 物体感知困难。 这将有助于识别特殊的 老年人可能处于不利地位的情况。 的 研究还有助于制定指导方针， 有效地向老年人呈现视觉信息。

This research project on visual perceptual processes in aging focuses on object perception. The initial research will examine whether the basic mechanisms of object perception are the same for young and old adults. A pilot study suggests that they are, although they may differ in detail. The research will explore two areas in which the detail may differ. The first is the nature of the basic perceptual elements from which objects are formed. The second is in the processes by which those perceptual features are combined to form objects. The investigations of Anne Treisman and coworkers of object perception mechanisms in young adults provides much of the theory and methodology of the proposed experiments. Their work has capitalized on a basic phenomenon. A target stimulus which has a feature not shared by distracting stimuli will "pop out" of the distractors, whereas a target which does not have a unique feature, but which shares features with the distractors, must be searched for with the expenditure of considerable congnitive effort. In one set of experiments, several search techniques which capitalize on the "pop out" phenomenon will be used to identify some features which might change with aging. Others sets of experiments will focus on the processes by which features are combined to form objects. Because attention has been shown to be important to some of the combination processes, these experiments are designed to characterize the changes which reduced attentional capacity is likely to produce. One such set of experiments will look for possible reductions in the number of items which can be searched as a group. Some general perceptual organizational processes are also known to influence the grouping of features into objects. Another set of experiments will examine the stability of those organizational processes with aging. Finally, other cognitive factors have been shown to influence object perception in younger adults. A set of experiments will examine whether cognitive changes in aging modify these organizational influences on object perception. The proposed program of research will help characterize the extent to which and in what circumstances older adults have difficulty with object perception. It will help identify special situations in which older adult may be at a disadvantage. The research can also contribute to the formulation of guidelines for presenting visual information effectively to older adults.