Identification of fragmented pictures under ascending versus fixed presentation in young and elderly adults: Evidence for the inhibition-deficit hypothesis

Abstract

Young and elderly adults were tested for the ability to identify degraded pictures that were presented using either an ascending or a fixed method of presentation. In the ascending condition pictures were presented in a successive fashion over a series of trials with each trial increasing the completeness of the visual information. Subjects were asked to attempt to identify the pictures at each level of increasing completeness until correct identification was achieved. In the fixed condition, subjects were asked to identify degraded pictures that were presented in only one presentation at an intermediate level of visual completeness. When young and elderly subjects were equated on a pretest for performance on the ascending condition, older adults performed better than the young adults in the fixed condition both in the number of pictures correctly identified and in the response latencies to giving their identification responses. Results are interpreted as support for the inhibition-deficit hypothesis.