The relationship between subjective and objective evaluation on the age-related changes of attentional function

Abstract

This study investigated the age-related changes in the attentional function. Both objective and subjective approaches were used to evaluate the data. The objective evaluation was based on the behavioral data from task-switching and the subjective evaluation was based on the self-evaluation using the questionnaires with questions about attentional function in daily life and failure tendency. The results indicated that the older adults, despite of their actual deterioration in the attentional function on the objective rating, reported the state of their attentional function was better and the frequency of their failure was fewer. Also, the lower-attentional function group showed better self-evaluation than that of the higher-attention function group in the older adults. From the results, it was suggested that the problem in the older adults is not only related to the deterioration of the cognitive function itself such as attention but also the deterioration of the self-monitoring function.