Exploring age-related changes in saccades during cognitive tasks in healthy adults.

Introduction: Although eye movements such as saccades are related to internal cognitive processes and are independent of visual processing, few studies have investigated whether non-visual cognitive tasks simultaneously affect horizontal and vertical saccades in younger and older adults.

Methods: We recruited 28 younger adults aged 20-29 years and 26 older adults aged >60 years through advertisements in community settings. All participants were free of major psychiatric, neurological, or ocular diseases.

Eye Movement Patterns Reflecting Cybersickness: Evidence from Different Experience Modes of a Virtual Reality Game.

This study investigated whether the degree of cybersickness varies depending on different virtual reality experience modes (playing vs. watching) and whether specific eye movement parameters reflect changes in cybersickness. Simulator Sickness Questionnaire results from 20 participants (10 playing and 10 watching) showed that cybersickness was much more severe in the watching mode, particularly during the second of the three total trials.

The effects of varying contextual demands on age-related positive gaze preferences.

Despite many studies on the age-related positivity effect and its role in visual attention, discrepancies remain regarding whether full attention is required for age-related differences to emerge. The present study took a new approach to this question by varying the contextual demands of emotion processing. This was done by adding perceptual distractions, such as visual and auditory noise, that could disrupt attentional control.

Training versus engagement as paths to cognitive enrichment with aging.

While a training model of cognitive intervention targets the improvement of particular skills through instruction and practice, an engagement model is based on the idea that being embedded in an intellectually and socially complex environment can impact cognition, perhaps even broadly, without explicit instruction. We contrasted these 2 models of cognitive enrichment by randomly assigning healthy older adults to a home-based inductive reasoning training program, a team-based competitive program in creative problem solving, or a wait-list control. As predicted, those in the training condition showed selective improvement in inductive reasoning.

Emotional faces in context: age differences in recognition accuracy and scanning patterns.

Although age-related declines in facial expression recognition are well documented, previous research has relied mostly on isolated faces devoid of context. The authors investigated the effects of context on age differences in recognition of facial emotions and in visual scanning patterns of emotional faces. While their eye movements were monitored, younger and older participants viewed facial expressions (i.

The role of affect in attentional functioning for younger and older adults.

Although previous research has shown that positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) modulate attentional functioning in distinct ways, few studies have considered whether the links between affect and attentional functioning may vary as a function of age. Using the Attention Network Test (Fan et al., 2002), we tested whether participants' current state of PA and NA influenced distinct attentional functions (i.

The effects of print exposure on sentence processing and memory in older adults: Evidence for efficiency and reserve.

The present study was an examination of how exposure to print affects sentence processing and memory in older readers. A sample of older adults (N = 139; Mean age = 72) completed a battery of cognitive and linguistic tests and read a series of sentences for recall. Word-by-word reading times were recorded and generalized linear mixed effects models were used to estimate components representing attentional allocation to word-level and textbase-level processes.

Does Looking at the Positive Mean Feeling Good? Age and Individual Differences Matter.

In this paper, we link age differences in gaze patterns toward emotional stimuli to later mood outcomes. While one might think that looking at more positive emotional material leads to better moods, and looking at more negative material leads to worse moods, it turns out that links between emotional looking and mood depend on age as well as individual differences. Though older people can feel good by looking more at positive material, in some cases young adults actually feel better by engaging visually with the negative.

In the zone: flow state and cognition in older adults.

The current study investigated the nature of the flow state among older adults. Flow is a pleasurable experiential state that occurs during full-capacity engagement in which an individual is performing at a level that is matched with the demands of the task. Each participant completed a scale assessing dimensions of flow in a particular activity selected by the participant.

Deliberate real-time mood regulation in adulthood: the importance of age, fixation and attentional functioning.

While previous research has linked executive attention to emotion regulation, the current study investigated the role of attentional alerting (i.e., efficient use of external warning cues) on younger (N=39) and older (N=44) adults' use of gaze to regulate their mood in real time.

Visual noise disrupts conceptual integration in reading.

The Effortfulness Hypothesis suggests that sensory impairment (either simulated or age-related) may decrease capacity for semantic integration in language comprehension. We directly tested this hypothesis by measuring resource allocation to different levels of processing during reading (i.e.

Age differences in the effects of conceptual integration training on resource allocation in sentence processing.

This research examined age differences in the accommodation of reading strategies as a consequence of explicit instruction in conceptual integration. In Experiment 1, young, middle-aged, and older adults read sentences for delayed recall using a moving-window method. Readers in an experimental group received instruction in making conceptual links during reading while readers in a control group were simply encouraged to allocate effort.

Age differences in tracking characters during narrative comprehension.

Understanding a narrative situation depends on keeping track of multiple characters that enter and exit dynamically as the plot unfolds. We investigated age differences in this process during narrative comprehension. In Experiment 1, we used a probe recognition paradigm to examine the effect of age on the accessibility of a previous character when another character was subsequently introduced.

Predispositional engagement, activity engagement, and cognition among older adults.

We investigated interrelationships between the predisposition toward approaching experiences in a mindful and creative way, participation in specific activities, and cognition among older adults. Participants were administered a battery measuring cognition (i.e.

Adult age differences in the effects of goals on self-regulated sentence processing.

The authors examined age differences in adults' allocation of effort when reading text for either high levels of recall accuracy or high levels of efficiency. Participants read a series of sentences, making judgments of learning before recall. Older adults showed less sensitivity than the young to the accuracy goal in both reading time allocation and memory performance.