Top-down and bottom-up guidance in normal aging during scene search

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Human Aging Research

Background:

• Age-related attentional decline is known in simple visual search.
• Limited understanding of aging effects on attentional guidance in complex scenes.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate age-related differences in top-down and bottom-up visual search guidance in realistic scenes.
• Analyze eye-movement behavior to understand attentional mechanisms in aging.

Main Methods:

• Eye-movement analysis during realistic scene search.
• Manipulation of target template specificity (picture vs. word cue).
• Manipulation of target-scene semantic consistency (consistent vs. inconsistent).
• Manipulation of perceptual salience (high vs. low) of targets and distractors.

Main Results:

• Older adults (OA) were slower overall and showed reduced benefit from specific target templates.
• OA exhibited greater bottom-up search facilitation from high-salience targets.
• OA experienced greater attentional capture by distractors, particularly in disengagement.

Conclusions:

• Age-related visual search differences depend on task demands (top-down vs. bottom-up guidance).
• Older adults' scene search difficulties can be mitigated by cognitive and perceptual environmental support.