Age-Related Changes in Psychomotor Performance

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to assess the influence of age relative to the response to changes in task difficulty within the performance of a discrete pursuit tracking task by adults from 20-89 years old. The results obtained suggest that although there was a significant age-related decrement in psychomotor performance, it was most prevalent in the 70-79 and 80-89 years age group. However, the data were quite stable across the younger age groups: 20-60 years. Hence, although providing support for the contention of age-related decrements in psychomotor performance with increasing age, this investigation indicates that the decrements may not be as dramatic or immediate as some studies may have previously implied.