>
> |
- study 3: examined effect of distractions and interruptions on the shopping errands task; prompted by findings that older persons are more affected by irrelevant stimuli than younger persons in complex visual search environments (Carlson 95, Morrow 92, Plude 86, Rabbitt 65) - inability to inhibit irrelevant inputs (Hasher 88)
- West 99 - momentary lapses in intention; brief lapses in vigilance rather than an inability to remember task instructions; brief delays in opportunity to execute an intention caused deficits in performance of older adults
- interrupted by having a conversation with another person - introducing 4 verbal fluency tasks during the movement down the street; memory load has been shown to affect memory for intentions in older persons; hypothesised that older persons would display a deficit in the reinstatement of working memory for the shopping task
- 2-factor, condition (distraction, interruption, control) x age group ANOVA; significant age and condition main effects - ability for older group to detect cues in interruption condition was significantly reduced; only significant differences were for the older group, between the control and interruption conditions and the distraction and interruption conditions; ANOVA conducted for probability of recalling the tasks correctly - only sig. main effect was age; time/page data ANOVA - age was significant; no evidence that older group slowed their time of inspection per page to compensate for presence of any additional distraction; age by condition interaction - control group accessed more pages for each location correct than either the distraction or interruption groups;
- irrelevant visual and auditory distraction to the situation had little effect; relatively easy for participants to inhibit this auditory modality, since it is clearly not relevant to the shopping task, which relies on visual cues
- interrupted subsequently less likely to notice cues in the street; condition-specific impact on recall; if cue was noticed then probability of remembering the associated action was unchanged; recognising cues on the other hand is dependent on conditions that arise in the environment;
- McDaniel 03, Einstein 00 - brief delays b/w cue recognition and opportunity to act impair older persons' performance; older persons report difficulty remembering what they were doing before they were interrupted
- discussion - older persons have difficulty remembering intentions, even when environment and tasks are familiar and they can move at their own pace;
- older persons were specifically impaired in the memory search component of the task relative to detecting cues; recall more effortful than attentional processing in this situation; self-initiated memory search is impaired in old age;
- familiarity had no effect on accuracy or speed of movement for young/old persons
- older persons not specifically disadvantaged when asked to recognise a relatively small number of distinct cues in an environment that, although unfamiliar, is within their range of experience
- older persons responded by blocking out distractions, where the distraction could not be ignored, ability of older persons to notice cues was significantly disadvantaged, although meta-strategy was intact; this had the effect of disrupting the prospective vigilance or monitoring component of the task, while having no specific effect on the memory search component
- older persons may be aware that memory generally declines with age, translating this into a realistic expectation of performance on a specific or a novel task to be difficult
- limitation: time frame of the task (1 hr);
- future work: allow strategic planning, move backwards and forwards
- circumstances where attentional and memory strategy are self-determined, likely that kind of difficulties that come with age or are inflicted by brain injury will become more pronounced
|
Copyright © 2008-2025 by the contributing authors. All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.