Publications [#274872] of David J. Madden

Papers Published

1. Madden, DJ; Spaniol, J; Bucur, B; Whiting, WL (2007). Age-related increase in top-down activation of visual features.. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove), 60(5), 644-651. [17455072], [doi]
   (last updated on 2024/10/04)

   Abstract:
   Previous research suggests that, during visual search and discrimination tasks, older adults place greater emphasis than younger adults on top-down attention. This experiment investigated the relative contribution of target activation and distractor inhibition to this age difference. Younger and older adults performed a singleton discrimination task in which either an E or an R target (colour singleton) was present among distractor letters. Relative to a baseline condition in which the colours of the targets and distractors remained constant, an age-related slowing of performance was evident when either the colour of the target or that of the distractors varied across trials. The age-related slowing was more pronounced in response to target colour variation, suggesting that older adults place relatively greater emphasis on the top-down activation of target features.