Age and visual field differences in computing visual-spatial relations.

Abstract

Age and brain hemispheric differences in visual-spatial performance were investigated using 2 versions of categorical and coordinate (metric) spatial relations tasks. Thirty-two young adults (M -19.2 years) and 32 older adults (M= 68.8 years) participated. An overall age-related decrement in computing visual-spatial relations was obtained for lateralized presentations and when items were presented centrally. In contrast to some previous findings, there was no evidence to suggest differential aging of the right hemisphere in computing visual-spatial relations.This research was supported by National Institute on Aging Research Grant AG 06041 to William J. Hoyer. Data reported for the young subjects in this experiment were also described in an article by John M. Rybash and William J. Hoyer (1992).We acknowledge Christine Chiarello and Jeffrey Elias for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this article. Also, we acknowledge Carl Crockett, David Hattenbrun, Kjmberly Potts, and Chandan Vaidya for assistance with data collection and Mehmet Yavuzer for programming assistance. We thank members and staff of the Wagon Wheel Senior Center in Syracuse, New \brk, for their cooperation.

Age- and sex-related differences in temporal judgments to visual stimuli: Support for hemispheric equivalence

“…Evidence supporting hemispheric equivalence with advanced age was revealed by similar threshold values between the two unilateral conditions and by the similar threshold values for the order of stimulation in the bilateral presentations. Although the findings of the present study provide evidence for the uniform aging of the cerebral hemispheres (Borod & Goodglass, 1980;Hoyer & Rybash, 1992), the absence of an age-related differential hemispheric decline in judgments of simultaneity is some distance from the complex aging process of the cerebral hemispheres. Nonetheless, the present results indicate that this type of ability does not decline differentially between hemispheres.…”

“…The differential decline in verbal and nonverbal abilities initiated the hypothesis that the right hemisphere ages more rapidly than does the left hemisphere (Goldstein & Shelly, 1981). However, the findings of cognitive and perceptual studies that have examined cerebral lateralization among the elderly are inconsistent.Several studies do not provide evidence for an age-related differential decline, favoring the left hemisphere (Borod & Goodglass, 1980;Brown & Sainsbury, 2000;Cherry, Hellige, & McDowd, 1995;Hoyer & Rybash, 1992;Nebes, Madden, & Berg, 1983), whereas other studies report an age-related differential decline, favoring the left hemisphere (Boll, 1974;Goldstein & Shelly, 1981; R. C. Johnson et al, 1979;Klisz, 1978;Meudell & Greenhalgh, 1987). However, other factors, such as task complexity, familiarity of task and materials, and speed (timed tasks), have been noted to affect age differences in performance (see Horn & Hofer, 1992).…”

Performance of younger and older adults in lateralised right and left hemisphere asymmetry tasks supports the HAROLD model

“…Alternatively, results from the latter studies might simply support a series of additional reports on lateralized hemifield studies that hemispheric advantages are comparable for younger and older participants, whether testing 120 men on verbal (left hemisphere advantage) and melodic (right hemisphere advantage) material (Borod & Goodglass, 1980), 64 women in the computation of visual-spatial relations (Hoyer & Rybash, 1992), 96 adults in a letter and a face matching task (Obler et al, 1984), and 20 women and 20 men in a consonant-vowel-consonant nonsense syllables task as well as an object matching task (Cherry et al, 1995). Unfortunately, inconsistencies in the study of hemispheric asymmetry are not new (Efron, 1990).…”

“…It needs to be noted, however, that additional studies found no difference in lateralization pattern between younger and older populations, whether testing 120 men of different ages on verbal (left hemisphere advantage) and melodic (right hemisphere advantage) material (Borod & Goodglass, 1980), or whether testing 32 younger women and 32 older women on lateralized tasks in which they needed to compute visual-spatial relations (Hoyer & Rybash, 1992). Also, using a letter and a face matching task, no difference in lateralization was observed when comparing performances between three age groups (16 men and 16 women in each group) (Obler et al, 1984).…”

Enhancing the Usability of Telecare Devices

“…This impairment is also observed in the semantic memory but it does not become important until an advanced age. Some studies show a small deficit in the ability to recognize simple, familiar items in tasks of (previously exposed) memory, but there is a significant deficit in the contents of the memory (Hoyer & Rybash, 1992). When the learning material contains histories, text, or interviews, this deficit also occurs in the recognition of significant forms (Hertzog & Rogers, 1989;Hultsch, Masson, & Small, 1991;Stine & Wingfield, 1987).…”