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Context Processing and Aging: Older Adults’ Ability to Learn And CONTEXT PROCESSING AND AGING: OLDER ADULTS’ ABILITY TO LEARN AND UTILIZE VISUAL CONTEXTS A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the North Dakota State University of Agriculture and Applied Science By Nora Denise Gayzur In Partial Fulfillment for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Major Department: Psychology April 2013 Fargo, North Dakota North Dakota State University Graduate School Title Context Processing and Aging: Older Adults’ Ability to Learn and Use Visual Contexts By Nora Denise Gayzur The Supervisory Committee certifies that this disquisition complies with North Dakota State University’s regulations and meets the accepted standards for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE: Linda K. Langley, PhD. Chair Robert D. Gordon, PhD. Paul Rokke, PhD. Gregory Sanders, PhD. Approved: 5/31/2013 James Council, PhD. Date Department Chair ABSTRACT The purpose of the present study was to examine how older adults utilize contextual information to guide attention in visual scenes. Studies that have examined context and attentional deployment have used the contextual cueing task. Contextual cueing reflects faster responses to repeated spatial configurations (consistent context-target covaration) than random spatial configurations (inconsistent covariation). Research has shown mixed results in older adults’ ability to utilize context with this task. Young (18-23 years) and older (60-85 years) adults were tested in two contextual cuing experiments to assess age differences in how individuals utilize context in novel and real-world visual scenes. Experiment 1 investigated the development of contextual cueing effects using low-meaning visual contexts (letter arrays). In low-meaning arrays, young and older adults were able to use context effeciently with no age differences in the development of contextual cueing effects. Experiment 2 examined older adults’ ability to utilize context when context was meaningful (real-world images). Younger and older adults saw real-world images in an upright (meaningful) or inverted (less meaningful) orientation. Older adults were able to use context similarly to younger adults, with no age differences in the development of contextual cueing. Contrary to predictions, context utilization was not impacted by the meaningfulness of the image. Contextual cueing effects occurred at the same time for upright and inverted images for young and older adults. Together, these studies demonstrated that older adults were able to utilize context. Meaningfulness did not provide an additional benefit for older adults, but this was true of young adults. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My appreciation is extended to Dr. Linda Langley for her guidance and support throughout the progression of my dissertation (and career in academia), as well as my committee members, Dr. Robert Gordon, Dr. Paul Rokke, and Dr. Gregory Sanders, for their time and suggestions on this dissertation. I would also like to thank Alyson Saville for her help in recruiting and testing older adults, and Dustin Elliott for his diligent work on data collection and on-site testing with older adults. I thank the undergraduate research assistants for their stellar performance in data collection. Without their help, I would not have been able to finish this work in the short time frame. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................1 Aging and Context Processing .............................................................................................2 Context in Novel Visual Scenes ..........................................................................................4 Context in Real-World Visual Scenes .................................................................................7 Context in Visual Scenes and Aging ...................................................................................9 Spatial and Non-Spatial Contextual Guidance ..................................................................10 Present Study .....................................................................................................................11 CHAPTER 2: EXPERIMENT 1 ....................................................................................................13 Method ...............................................................................................................................15 Participants .............................................................................................................15 Materials ................................................................................................................15 Procedure ...............................................................................................................18 Results ................................................................................................................................20 Reaction Times for the Search Task ......................................................................20 Block Analysis for the Search Task .......................................................................26 Error Analysis for the Search Task ........................................................................27 Memory Task .........................................................................................................29 Recognition Task .......................................................................................29 v Target Localization Task ...........................................................................30 Discussion ..........................................................................................................................30 CHAPTER 3: EXPERIMENT 2 ....................................................................................................33 Method ...............................................................................................................................33 Participants .............................................................................................................33 Materials ................................................................................................................34 Procedure ...............................................................................................................35 Results ................................................................................................................................37 Reaction Times for the Search Task ......................................................................37 Between Subjects Analysis of Meaningfulness .....................................................43 Block Analysis for the Search Task .......................................................................44 Error Analysis for the Search Task ........................................................................45 Memory Task .........................................................................................................47 Recognition Task .......................................................................................47 Target Localization Task ...........................................................................50 Discussion ..........................................................................................................................51 CHAPTER 4: GENERAL DISCUSSION .....................................................................................54 Similarities and Differences between Experiment 1 and 2 ................................................55 Context Processing Theory and Aging ..............................................................................56 Aging and Visual Search ...................................................................................................57 Future Directions ...............................................................................................................58 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................60 REFERENCES ..............................................................................................................................61 vi LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Demographic and Psychometric Data for Participants in Experiment 1 and 2..................17 2. Mean RTs (ms) and Error Rates (%) for each Epoch in Experiment 1 .............................22 3. Mean Responses for the Recognition and Target Localization Tasks for Experiment 1 ......................................................................................................................29 4. Mean RTs (ms) and Error Rates (%) as a function of Age Group, Meaningfulness Condition, and Epoch in Experiment 2 for Upright Images .............................................38 5. Mean RTs (ms) and Error Rates (%) as a function of Age Group, Meaningfulness Condition, and Epoch in Experiment
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