The long-term objective of this research is to identify the knowledge-based and capacity-based factors which are associated with improvement, maintenance, and decline in effective cognitive functioning in healthy older adults. The first proposed experiment seeks to clarify the nature of the effects of prior domain-related knowledge on adult age differences in summarizing the information available in text materials in the target domain. Proposed experiments 2, 3, and 4 examine age-related and skill-related differences in searching for target items in """"""""visually-rich"""""""" displays. It is expected that the beneficial effects of skill-related knowledge on the cognitive performance of older adults will be demonstrated by contrasting the visual search performance of older adults under domain-specific and domain-general visual display formats. Adult age differences in the effects of domain-related skill on reducing the capacity demands of visual search are assessed using a dual-task methodology (comparing Experiments 3 and 5). Older adults are expected to show capacity-based limitations in domain-general visual search but not in domain-specific search, and they are expected to show less transfer of the domain-specific skills of visual search to the task of identifying and summarizing the main points of text materials in the target domain.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
1R01AG006041-01A1
Application #
3116798
Study Section
(LCRB)
Project Start
1986-07-01
Project End
1989-06-30
Budget Start
1986-07-01
Budget End
1987-06-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1986
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Syracuse University
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
City
Syracuse
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
13210
Kotary, L; Hoyer, W J (1995) Age and the ability to inhibit distractor information in visual selective attention. Exp Aging Res 21:159-71
Clancy, S M; Hoyer, W J (1993) Skill and hemispheric specialization in detecting featural differences in visual images. Brain Cogn 21:192-202
Folk, C L; Hoyer, W J (1992) Aging and shifts of visual spatial attention. Psychol Aging 7:453-65
Frazier, L; Hoyer, W J (1992) Object recognition by component features: are there age differences. Exp Aging Res 18:9-14
Hoyer, W J; Rybash, J M (1992) Age and visual field differences in computing visual-spatial relations. Psychol Aging 7:339-42
Rybash, J M; Hoyer, W J (1992) Hemispheric specialization for categorical and coordinate spatial representations: a reappraisal. Mem Cognit 20:271-6
Chiarello, C; Hoyer, W J (1988) Adult age differences in implicit and explicit memory: time course and encoding effects. Psychol Aging 3:358-66
Sperbeck, D J; Whitbourne, S K; Hoyer, W J (1986) Age and openness to experience in autobiographical memory. Exp Aging Res 12:169-72