Cite as:
Norman J F, Norman H F, Swindle J M, Jennings L R, Bartholomew A N, 2009, "Aging and the discrimination of object weight" Perception 38(9) 1347 – 1354
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Aging and the discrimination of object weight

J Farley Norman, Hideko F Norman, Jessica M Swindle, L RaShae Jennings, Ashley N Bartholomew

Received 14 January 2009, in revised form 10 March 2009; published online 15 September 2009

Abstract. A single experiment was carried out to evaluate the ability of younger and older observers to discriminate object weights. A 2-alternative forced-choice variant of the method of constant stimuli was used to obtain difference thresholds for lifted weight for twelve younger (mean age;=;21.5 years) and twelve older (mean age;=;71.3 years) adults. The standard weight was 100 g, whereas the test weights ranged from 85 to 115 g. The difference thresholds of the older observers were 57.6% higher than those of the younger observers: the average difference thresholds were 10.4% and 6.6% of the standard for the older and younger observers, respectively. The current findings of an age-related deterioration in the ability to discriminate lifted weight extend and disambiguate the results of earlier research.

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