scholarly journals The measurement of approximate number system acuity across the lifespan is compromised by congruency effects

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 1037-1046 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jade Eloise Norris ◽  
Sarah Clayton ◽  
Camilla Gilmore ◽  
Matthew Inglis ◽  
Julie Castronovo
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Convex Hull ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Number System ◽  
Approximate Number System ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Numerosity Discrimination ◽  
Visual Cue ◽  
Valid Measurement

Recent studies have highlighted the influence of visual cues such as dot size and cumulative surface area on the measurement of the approximate number system (ANS). Previous studies assessing ANS acuity in ageing have all applied stimuli generated by the Panamath protocol, which does not control nor measure the influence of convex hull. Crucially, convex hull has recently been identified as an influential visual cue present in dot arrays, with its impact on older adults’ ANS acuity yet to be investigated. The current study therefore investigated the manipulation of convex hull by the Panamath protocol, and its effect on the measurement of ANS acuity in younger and older participants. First, analyses of the stimuli generated by Panamath revealed a confound between numerosity ratio and convex hull ratio. Second, although older adults were somewhat less accurate than younger adults on convex hull incongruent trials, ANS acuity was broadly similar between the groups. These findings have implications for the valid measurement of ANS acuity across all ages, and suggest that the Panamath protocol produces stimuli that do not adequately control for the influence of convex hull on numerosity discrimination.

scholarly journals Exogenous Bimodal Cues Attenuate Age-Related Audiovisual Integration

i-Perception ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 204166952110207
Author(s):  
Yanna Ren ◽  
Ying Zhang ◽  
Yawei Hou ◽  
Junyuan Li ◽  
Junhao Bi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Race Model ◽  
Aging Effect ◽  
Audiovisual Integration ◽  
Exogenous Attention ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Visual Cue ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Exogenous Cue

Previous studies have demonstrated that exogenous attention decreases audiovisual integration (AVI); however, whether the AVI is different when exogenous attention is elicited by bimodal and unimodal cues and its aging effect remain unclear. To clarify this matter, 20 older adults and 20 younger adults were recruited to conduct an auditory/visual discrimination task following bimodal audiovisual cues or unimodal auditory/visual cues. The results showed that the response to all stimulus types was faster in younger adults compared with older adults, and the response was faster when responding to audiovisual stimuli compared with auditory or visual stimuli. Analysis using the race model revealed that the AVI was lower in the exogenous-cue conditions compared with the no-cue condition for both older and younger adults. The AVI was observed in all exogenous-cue conditions for the younger adults (visual cue > auditory cue > audiovisual cue); however, for older adults, the AVI was only found in the visual-cue condition. In addition, the AVI was lower in older adults compared to younger adults under no- and visual-cue conditions. These results suggested that exogenous attention decreased the AVI, and the AVI was lower in exogenous attention elicited by bimodal-cue than by unimodal-cue conditions. In addition, the AVI was reduced for older adults compared with younger adults under exogenous attention.

scholarly journals Approximate number system task performance: Associations with domain-general and domain-specific cognitive skills in young children

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 590-612 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Wagner Fuhs ◽  
Kimberly Turner Nesbitt ◽  
Connor D. O’Rear
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Number System ◽  
Approximate Number System ◽  
Early Environment ◽  
Developmental Models ◽  
General Ability ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
System Task

We investigated the associations between young children’s domain-general executive functioning (EF) skills and domain-specific spontaneous focusing on number (SFON) tendencies and their performance on an approximate number system (ANS) task, paying particular attention to variations in associations across different trial types with either congruent or incongruent non-numerical continuous visual cues. We found that children’s EF skills were strongly related to their performance on ANS task trials in which continuous visual cues were incongruent with numerosity. Novel to the current study, we found that children’s SFON tendencies were specifically related to their performance on ANS task trials in which continuous visual cues were congruent with numerosity. Children’s performance on ANS task trials in which children can use both congruent numerical and non-numerical continuous visual cues to approximate large quantities may be related to their unprompted tendency to focus on number in their early environment when there are not salient distractors present. On the other hand, children’s performance on incongruent ANS trials may be less a function of number-specific knowledge but more of children’s domain-general ability to inhibit salient but conflicting or irrelevant stimuli. Importantly, these effects held even when accounting for global math achievement and children’s cardinality knowledge. Overall, results support the consideration of both domain-specific and domain-general cognitive factors in developmental models of children’s early ability to attend to numerosity and provide a possible means for reconciling previous conflicting research findings.

Spontaneous Focusing on Numerosity Is Linked to Numerosity Discrimination in Children and Adults

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mattan S. Ben-Shachar ◽  
Svetlana Lisson ◽  
Dalit Shotts-Peretz ◽  
Minna Hannula-Sormunen ◽  
Andrea Berger
Keyword(s):  
Number System ◽  
Fine Tuning ◽  
Developmental Pathways ◽  
Approximate Number System ◽  
Numerosity Discrimination ◽  
Stable Domain ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Mathematical Abilities ◽  
Academic Achievements ◽  
The Relationship

Spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON) is the tendency to spontaneously address exact numerosity in the environment without prompting. While previous studies have found children’s SFON to be a stable, domain-specific predictor of mathematical abilities throughout development, it is unclear whether SFON reflects individual differences in quantitative processing. This study examined the relationship between SFON and the acuity of the Approximate Number System (ANS) in children and adults. To measure adults’ SFON, we developed a numerosity bias task (NBT). In children and adults, better ANS acuity was related to higher tendency to spontaneously focus on numerosity. Additionally, in adults, SFON was related to higher mathematical academic achievements. These findings suggest an interplay between SFON and ANS acuity, indicating a mechanism where increased ANS acuity makes numerosity elements in the environment more salient, while early self-initiated numerical practice promotes fine-tuning of the ANS. Possible implications of these reciprocal developmental pathways are discussed.

Examining the Effect of Age on Visual–Vestibular Self-Motion Perception Using a Driving Paradigm

Perception ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 566-585 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Ramkhalawansingh ◽  
Behrang Keshavarz ◽  
Bruce Haycock ◽  
Saba Shahab ◽  
Jennifer L. Campos
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Motion Perception ◽  
Multisensory Integration ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Lateral Position ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Vestibular Cues ◽  
Self Motion

Previous psychophysical research has examined how younger adults and non-human primates integrate visual and vestibular cues to perceive self-motion. However, there is much to be learned about how multisensory self-motion perception changes with age, and how these changes affect performance on everyday tasks involving self-motion. Evidence suggests that older adults display heightened multisensory integration compared with younger adults; however, few previous studies have examined this for visual–vestibular integration. To explore age differences in the way that visual and vestibular cues contribute to self-motion perception, we had younger and older participants complete a basic driving task containing visual and vestibular cues. We compared their performance against a previously established control group that experienced visual cues alone. Performance measures included speed, speed variability, and lateral position. Vestibular inputs resulted in more precise speed control among older adults, but not younger adults, when traversing curves. Older adults demonstrated more variability in lateral position when vestibular inputs were available versus when they were absent. These observations align with previous evidence of age-related differences in multisensory integration and demonstrate that they may extend to visual–vestibular integration. These findings may have implications for vehicle and simulator design when considering older users.

Influence of visual cues on localization of acoustic sound sources in old adults

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Claudia Freigang ◽  
Marc Stoehr ◽  
Kristina Schmiedchen ◽  
Jan Bennemann ◽  
Rudolf Rübsamen
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Visual Stimulus ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Free Field ◽  
Sensory System ◽  
Visual Cue ◽  
Localization Accuracy ◽  
Old Adults ◽  
Age Related

Localization accuracy of stationary acoustic objects is reduced as people grow older. While it is known that this reduction can be caused by many age-related declines in the peripheral sensory system, at central cortical levels as well as in cognitive processes, it is not known how much localization performance is influenced by concurrent congruent and/or incongruent spatial information from a different sensory system, e.g., vision. In the present study we examined localization accuracy of young and old adults to acoustic stimuli that were presented simultaneously to a visual stimulus that was either spatially congruent or spatially disparate (by ±5°/±10°/±15°) in acoustic free field. The acoustic reference position was presented at frontal (9°), para-frontal (30°), and lateral (64°) positions. To infer how strongly the visual cue interacted with the auditory stimulus a unification task was examined. Here, acoustic and visual stimulus combinations were the same as in the localization task. Participants were instructed to indicate whenever both visual and acoustic information matched in terms of their spatial position. Localization accuracy was not influenced by the visual cue in young adults, but the influence of the visual distractor was strong in old adults, i.e., visual bias was strong. These observations were supported by the unification task where old adults had increased perception of congruent audio–visual directions at all reference positions and even at very large disparities (e.g., ±15°). Conclusively, concurrent information from different sensory systems highly influences auditory localization accuracy in older adults, supporting the notion that multisensory integration is enhanced in older adults.

Cognitive Load Affects Speech Motor Performance Differently in Older and Younger Adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
pp. 1258-1277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan K. MacPherson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Load ◽  
Motor Performance ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Incongruent Condition ◽  
Sentence Production ◽  
Movement Duration ◽  
Production Task ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Speech Motor

PurposeThe aim of this study was to determine the impact of cognitive load imposed by a speech production task on the speech motor performance of healthy older and younger adults. Response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory were the primary cognitive processes of interest.MethodTwelve healthy older and 12 healthy younger adults produced multiple repetitions of 4 sentences containing an embedded Stroop task in 2 cognitive load conditions: congruent and incongruent. The incongruent condition, which required participants to suppress orthographic information to say the font colors in which color words were written, represented an increase in cognitive load relative to the congruent condition in which word text and font color matched. Kinematic measures of articulatory coordination variability and movement duration as well as a behavioral measure of sentence production accuracy were compared between groups and conditions and across 3 sentence segments (pre-, during-, and post-Stroop).ResultsIncreased cognitive load in the incongruent condition was associated with increased articulatory coordination variability and movement duration, compared to the congruent Stroop condition, for both age groups. Overall, the effect of increased cognitive load was greater for older adults than younger adults and was greatest in the portion of the sentence in which cognitive load was manipulated (during-Stroop), followed by the pre-Stroop segment. Sentence production accuracy was reduced for older adults in the incongruent condition.ConclusionsIncreased cognitive load involving response inhibition, selective attention, and working memory processes within a speech production task disrupted both the stability and timing with which speech was produced by both age groups. Older adults' speech motor performance may have been more affected due to age-related changes in cognitive and motoric functions that result in altered motor cognition.

Regulation of Experienced and Anticipated Regret for Daily Decisions in Younger and Older Adults in a Swedish One-Week Diary Study

GeroPsych ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 233-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pär Bjälkebring ◽  
Daniel Västfjäll ◽  
Boo Johansson
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Diary Study ◽  
Anticipated Regret ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Web Based ◽  
Decision Regret ◽  
Diary Method ◽  
Regulation Strategies

Regret and regret regulation were studied using a weeklong web-based diary method. 108 participants aged 19 to 89 years reported regret for a decision made and a decision to be made. They also reported the extent to which they used strategies to prevent or regulate decision regret. Older adults reported both less experienced and anticipated regret compared to younger adults. The lower level of experienced regret in older adults was mediated by reappraisal of the decision. The lower level of anticipated regret was mediated by delaying the decision, and expecting regret in older adults. It is suggested that the lower level of regret observed in older adults is partly explained by regret prevention and regulation strategies.

Video Games and Emotion Regulation

GeroPsych ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 205-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn L. Ossenfort ◽  
Derek M. Isaacowitz
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Emotion Regulation ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Interactive Media ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Media Preferences

Abstract. Research on age differences in media usage has shown that older adults are more likely than younger adults to select positive emotional content. Research on emotional aging has examined whether older adults also seek out positivity in the everyday situations they choose, resulting so far in mixed results. We investigated the emotional choices of different age groups using video games as a more interactive type of affect-laden stimuli. Participants made multiple selections from a group of positive and negative games. Results showed that older adults selected the more positive games, but also reported feeling worse after playing them. Results supplement the literature on positivity in situation selection as well as on older adults’ interactive media preferences.

Slow Down You’re Moving Too Fast

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 53-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Lang ◽  
Nancy Schwartz ◽  
Sharon Mayell
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Attention And Memory ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Media Messages ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
The Difference

The study reported here compared how younger and older adults processed the same set of media messages which were selected to vary on two factors, arousing content and valence. Results showed that older and younger adults had similar arousal responses but different patterns of attention and memory. Older adults paid more attention to all messages than did younger adults. However, this attention did not translate into greater memory. Older and younger adults had similar levels of memory for slow-paced messages, but younger adults outperformed older adults significantly as pacing increased, and the difference was larger for arousing compared with calm messages. The differences found are in line with predictions made based on the cognitive-aging literature.

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