Information feedback, reaction time and error rates in young and old subjects

Reaction times and error rates in a letter classification task were examined in two groups of subjects, one with a mean age of 20.7 years, the other with a mean age of 63.6 years, under conditions where specific feedback regarding the speed and accuracy of performance on each trial either was or was not provided. Feedback produced a speed-accuracy trade-off for younger subjects. This finding offers no support for the position that feedback results in a general improvement in performance. Older subjects did not show a speed-accuracy trade-off. Rather, feedback resulted in trends toward both longer reaction times and higher error rates. These results are interpreted as showing that feedback has a phasic alerting effect in the younger subjects, but not in the older subjects.