scholarly journals Older adults detect happy facial expressions less rapidly

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 191715
Author(s):  
Akie Saito ◽  
Wataru Sato ◽  
Sakiko Yoshikawa
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Experimental Psychology ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Emotional Facial Expressions ◽  
Visual Properties

Previous experimental psychology studies based on visual search paradigms have reported that young adults detect emotional facial expressions more rapidly than emotionally neutral expressions. However, it remains unclear whether this holds in older adults. We investigated this by comparing the abilities of young and older adults to detect emotional and neutral facial expressions while controlling the visual properties of faces presented (termed anti-expressions) in a visual search task. Both age groups detected normal angry faces more rapidly than anti-angry faces. However, whereas young adults detected normal happy faces more rapidly than anti-happy faces, older adults did not. This suggests that older adults may not be easy to detect or focusing attention towards smiling faces appearing peripherally.

The Impact of Age on Visual Search Performance

1993 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Manivannan ◽  
Sara Czaja ◽  
Colin Drury ◽  
Chi Ming Ip
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Reaction Time ◽  
Selective Attention ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Search Performance ◽  
Performance Effect ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Impact

Visual search is an important component of many real world tasks such as industrial inspection and driving. Several studies have shown that age has an impact on visual search performance. In general older people demonstrate poorer performance on such tasks as compared to younger people. However, there is controversy regarding the source of the age-performance effect. The objective of this study was to examine the relationship between component abilities and visual search performance, in order to identify the locus of age-related performance differences. Six abilities including reaction time, working memory, selective attention and spatial localization were identified as important components of visual search performance. Thirty-two subjects ranging in age from 18 - 84 years, categorized in three different age groups (young, middle, and older) participated in the study. Their component abilities were measured and they performed a visual search task. The visual search task varied in complexity in terms of type of targets detected. Significant relationships were found between some of the component skills and search performance. Significant age effects were also observed. A model was developed using hierarchical multiple linear regression to explain the variance in search performance. Results indicated that reaction time, selective attention, and age were important predictors of search performance with reaction time and selective attention accounting for most of the variance.

scholarly journals The forest, the trees, and the leaves across adulthood: Age-related changes on a visual search task containing three-level hierarchical stimuli

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina Bouhassoun ◽  
Nicolas Poirel ◽  
Noah Hamlin ◽  
Gaelle E. Doucet
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Local Processing ◽  
Global Precedence ◽  
Hierarchical Stimuli

AbstractSelecting relevant visual information in complex scenes by processing either global information or local parts helps us act efficiently within our environment and achieve goals. A global advantage (faster global than local processing) and global interference (global processing interferes with local processing) comprise an evidentiary global precedence phenomenon in early adulthood. However, the impact of healthy aging on this phenomenon remains unclear. As such, we collected behavioral data during a visual search task, including three-levels hierarchical stimuli (i.e., global, intermediate, and local levels) with several hierarchical distractors, in 50 healthy adults (26 younger (mean age: 26 years) and 24 older (mean age: 62 years)). Results revealed that processing information presented at the global and intermediate levels was independent of age. Conversely, older adults were slower for local processing compared to the younger adults, suggesting lower efficiency to deal with visual distractors during detail-oriented visual search. Although healthy older adults continued exhibiting a global precedence phenomenon, they were disproportionately less efficient during local aspects of information processing, especially when multiple visual information was displayed. Our results could have important implications for many life situations by suggesting that visual information processing is impacted by healthy aging, even with similar visual stimuli objectively presented.

The efficiency of visual search for a frequently changed target is preserved in older adults

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182098635
Author(s):  
Hana Yabuki ◽  
Stephanie C Goodhew
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Target Type ◽  
Search Performance ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Daily Lives ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
Trial Basis

Visual search is a psychological function integral to most people’s daily lives. The extent to which visual search efficiency, and in particular the ability to use top-down attention in visual search, changes across the lifespan has been the focus of ongoing research. Here we sought to understand how the ability to frequently and dynamically change the target in a conjunction search task was affected by ageing. To do this, we compared visual search performance of a group of younger and older adults under conditions in which the target type was determined by a cue and could change on trial-to-trial basis (Intermixed), versus when the target type was fixed for a block of trials (Blocked). Although older adults were overall slower at the conjunction visual search task, and both groups were slower in the Intermixed compared with the Blocked Condition, older adults were not disproportionately affected by the Intermixed relative to the Blocked conditions. These results indicate that the ability to frequently change the target of visual search is preserved in older adults. This conclusion is consistent with an emerging consensus that many aspects of visual search and top-down contributions to it are preserved across the lifespan. It is also consistent with a growing body of work which challenges the neurocognitive theories of ageing that predict sweeping deficits in complex top-down components of cognition.

scholarly journals Myopia-correcting lenses decrease eye fatigue in a visual search task for both adolescents and adults

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. e0258441
Author(s):  
Hyeongsuk Ryu ◽  
Uijong Ju ◽  
Christian Wallraven
Keyword(s):  
Visual Search ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Myopia Progression ◽  
The Past ◽  
Eye Fatigue ◽  
Adolescents And Adults

The steady, world-wide increase in myopia prevalence in children over the past decades has raised concerns. As an early intervention for axial-length-related myopia, correcting lenses have been developed (such as Defocus Incorporated Multiple Segment (DIMS) lenses), which have been shown to be effective in slowing myopia progression. Beyond this direct effect, however, it is not known whether such lenses also affect other aspects important to the wearer, such as eye fatigue, and how such effects may differ across age, as these lenses so far are typically only tested with adolescents. In the present work, we therefore investigated perceived fatigue levels according to lens type (normal vs DIMS) and age (adolescents vs adults) in a demanding visual search task (“Finding Wally”) at two difficulty levels (easy vs difficult). Whereas age and difficulty did not result in significant differences in eye fatigue, we found a clear reduction of fatigue levels in both age groups when wearing the correcting lenses. Hence, the additional accommodation of these lens types may result in less strain in a task requiring sustained eye movements at near viewing distances.

Designing Combinations of Pictogram and Text Size for Icons: Effects of Text Size, Pictogram Size, and Familiarity on Older Adults’ Visual Search Performance

2021 ◽  
pp. 001872082110619
Author(s):  
Guanhua Hou ◽  
Ying Hu
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Search Task ◽  
Visual Search Task ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Search Performance ◽  
Practical Support ◽  
App Design ◽  
Tracking Technology

Objective This study aimed to determine suitable combinations of text and pictogram sizes for older adults and investigated the visual prioritization of pictogram versus text. Background Icons have become an indispensable part of application (app) design. Pictogram size and text size of icons influence the usability of apps, especially by aged users. However, few studies have investigated the influences of different pictogram and text size combinations on readability, legibility, and visual search performance for older adults. Method This study used eye-tracking technology to investigate the effects of different pictogram and text size combinations as well as familiarity on readability, legibility, and visual search performance for older adults. A 3 (pictogram size) × 3 (text size) × 2 (familiarity) repeated-measures experimental design was used. Results The results of this study suggest that pictogram size and text size significantly affect visual search performance and that familiarity moderates the effect of text size on distribution of fixation duration proportion for text and pictograms. Conclusion Large pictogram and text sizes improved the readability and legibility of icons for older adults. Furthermore, the older adults fixated the area of text prior to pictograms when the pictogram size was larger than 72 × 72 px (1.38° × 1.38°) in the visual search task. Application The results of this study suggest using different combinations of pictogram and text sizes for older adults under different scenarios. The findings of this study act as practical support for designers and developers of mobile apps for older adults.

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