系列光刺激の追従課題における加齢の影響

抄録

The purpose of this study is to examine the serial information processing capacity in children and middle-aged and elderly people by using a tracking task of serial pattern.
Subjects tracked two serial patterns twenty times respectively. In experiment I, the task was to switch the key in response to lighting without previous trial. In experiment II, subjects watched the pattern until they felt they had learned it, and then began responding. The stimulus interval (100ms) and the interstimulus interval (500ms) were always constant in experiment I and II. In experiment III, subjects tracked the pattern in 60 trials consisting of 20 trials of three interstimulus intervals (ISI): 500ms, 300ms and 800ms respectively. Samples were 60 right-handed females and males consisting of 10 members of six age groups 8, 10, and 12 years old childern, college students (ages 18-21), the middle (ages 41-43), and the elderly (ages 59-63).
College students could approximately execute the switch task in response to lighting in experiment I and II, and 12 years old children could also execute the same task in experiment II. In experiment I the reaction time of 8 and 10 years old children and middle aged and elderly people were longer than that of 12 years old children and college students by 100-400ms. In experiment II, however, the proportion of the anticipatory response of 8 and 10 years old children were more larger than that of other age groups. When the ISI was prolonged from 300ms to 800ms, the proportion of the anticipatory response of children was more noticeable than that of college students.
Thus 8 and 10 years old children responded to the learned serial pattern by the anticipatory response. However, performance in the middle and the elderly was slow and stereotyped. Twelve years old children, on the other hand, had the similar response properties as in both 8 and 10 years old ones and college students.