Evidence for an age-related decline in feature-based attention

ABSTRACT

Feature-based attention allows to efficiently guide attention to relevant information in the visual scene, but unambiguous empirical evidence on age-related effects is still limited. In this study, young and older participants performed a two-alternative forced choice task in which a response was selected based on a task-relevant number (=target) presented alone or with a task-irrelevant letter (=neutral distracter) or number (=compatible/incompatible distracter). Participants were required to select the target based on color. To compare the behavioral interference of the distracters between the age groups, data were modeled with a hierarchical drift-diffusion model. The results revealed that decreases in the rate at which information was collected in the conditions with versus without a distracter were more pronounced in the older than young age group when the distracter was compatible or incompatible. Our findings are consistent with an age-related decline in the ability to filter out distracters based on features.

KEYWORDS:

• Aging
• cognition
• neuropsychology
• selective attention
• feature-based attention

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant of the Research Foundation Flanders (G0H7718N). The study data have been made publicly available at the Open Science Framework, URL: https://osf.io/2k49x/.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The study data have been made publicly available at the Open Science Framework, URL: https://osf.io/2k49x/.

Public significance statement

The present study indicates that the ability to filter out distracters based on features declines with age. This decline likely occurs due to a general decrease in the top-down suppression of distracters and can attribute to age-related declines in other cognitive functions such as working memory.

Notes

1. The low quality of the eye tracking data in a subset of the participants is likely related to a suboptimal set-up (e.g., lighting < 300 lux) and individual factors (e.g., glasses, cataract surgery).

Additional information

Funding

The study data have been made publicly available at the Open Science Framework, URL: https://osf.io/2k49x/This study was supported by a grant of the Research Foundation Flanders (G0H7718N)