Related Experiment Videos
Sequential Information Processing: The "Elevated First Response Effect" Can Contribute to Exaggerated
Nasreen Basoudan1, Anna Torrens-Burton1, Amy Jenkins2
1Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Swansea, Wales, UK.
The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine
|March 30, 2019
Summary
Older adults show slower reaction time (RT) but not increased intra-individual variability (IIV) when the initial task element is excluded. This highlights how research methods impact findings on cognitive aging.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Neuroscience of aging
Background:
- Reaction time (RT) and intra-individual variability (IIV) are key cognitive measures.
- Aging is often associated with declines in RT and increases in IIV.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate age-related differences in RT and IIV using a novel iPad-based visual search task.
- To determine the influence of task structure, specifically the first item in a sequence, on age-related cognitive performance.
Main Methods:
- Employed an iPad-based visual search test requiring sequential stimulus interaction (1-8).
- Compared RT and IIV between younger and older adult groups.
- Analyzed performance with and without the initial stimulus response.
Main Results:
- Older adults exhibited significantly slower overall RT and greater IIV compared to younger adults.
- A disproportionately slowed RT and greater IIV were observed for the first stimulus in the series for older adults.
- Excluding the first stimulus response eliminated the significant age-related IIV difference, while RT slowing persisted.
Conclusions:
- Cognitive aging presents a dichotomy between preserved RT and IIV, contingent on methodological considerations.
- The initial processing step in sequential tasks significantly influences observed IIV in older adults.
- Research methodology critically impacts the interpretation of IIV changes in aging populations.