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Sekuler R, McLaughlin C, Yotsumoto Y, 2008, "Age-related changes in attentional tracking of multiple moving objects" Perception 37(6) 867 – 876
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Age-related changes in attentional tracking of multiple moving objects

Robert Sekuler, Chris McLaughlin, Yuko Yotsumoto

Received 4 June 2007, in revised form 5 September 2007; published online 15 May 2008

Abstract. In a multiple-object tracking (MOT) task, young and older adults attentively tracked a subset of 10 identical, randomly moving disks for several seconds, and then tried to identify those disks that had comprised the subset. Young adults who habitually played video games performed significantly better than those who did not. Compared to young subjects (mean rm age=20.6 years) with whom they were matched for video game experience, older subjects (mean rm age=75.3 years) showed much reduced ability to track multiple moving objects, particularly with faster movement or longer tracking times. Control measurements with stationary disks show that the age-related decline in MOT was not caused by a general change in memory per se. To generate an item-wise performance measure, we examined older subjects’ proportion correct according to the serial order in which individual disks were identified. Correct identification of target disks declined with the order in which targets were reported, suggesting that attentional tracking produced graded, rather than all-or-none, outcomes.

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