Orienting Task Performance between Young and Older Adults

Ageing causes deterioration in wide spectrum of visual, cognitive, and attentional functions. The attentional functions comprise of selection of an object and orientation toward its location. The visuospatial orientation toward a target is driven by cues which can be informative or uninformative. Studies showed that older adults were more sensitive to cue information than young adults (Bryan & Luszcz, 2000; Langley, Friesen, Saville & Ciernia, 2011) however; few studies reported that orienting of attention remains intact with ageing (Hartley, 1993). Present study examined the differences in the orienting task performance of 10 young (Age 18-35 years) and 10 older adults (Age 55-65 years), using Posner’s cuing paradigm. Reaction time and accuracy performance of the participants were recorded. Results revealed significant main effect of age for the reaction time measures and response accuracy where more orienting effect was observed among young adults in comparison to older adults.