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Biomedical subjects

W J Hoyer

Publications and source records attributed to W J Hoyer.

13 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Aging and shifts of visual spatial attention.

Three experiments examined adult age differences in the efficiency of endogenous (voluntary) and exogenous (involuntary) attention shifts. Younger and older subjects performed a spatial cuing task in which abruptly onset peripheral cues (Experiment 1) or central, symbolic cues (Experiments 2 and 3) were presented before a target stimulus at intervals ranging from 50 to 250 ms. With peripheral cues, the magnitude of cuing effects was at least as great for older as for younger adults and followed a similar time course. Similar results were obtained with symbolic cues, although cuing effects for older adults varied with cue difficulty. The results suggest that cue encoding may decline with advancing age but that the efficiency of the shift process is preserved.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1992

Hemispheric specialization for categorical and coordinate spatial representations: a reappraisal.

The purpose of the present study was to examine Kosslyn's (1987) claim that the left hemisphere (LH) is specialized for the computation of categorical spatial representations and that the right hemisphere (RH) is specialized for the computation of coordinate spatial representations. Categorical representations involve making judgements about the relative position of the components of a visual stimulus (e.g., whether one component is above/below another). Coordinate representations involve calibrating absolute distances between the components of a visual stimulus (e.g., whether one component is within 5 mm of another). Thirty-two male and 32 female undergraduates were administered two versions of a categorical or a coordinate task over three blocks of 36 trials. Within each block, items were presented to the right visual field-left hemisphere (RVF-LH), the left visual field-right hemisphere (LVF-RH), or a centralized position. Overall, results were more supportive of Kosslyn's assertions concerning the role played by the RH in the computation of spatial representations. Specifically, subjects displayed an LVF-RH advantage when performing both versions of the coordinate task. The LVF-RH advantage on the coordinate task, however, was confirmed to the first block of trials. Finally, it was found that males were more likely than females to display faster reaction times (RTs) on coordinate tasks, slower RTs on categorical tasks, and an LVF-RH advantage in computing coordinate tasks.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

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

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.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Dimensional preferences in middle and old age.

Dimensional preferences in 40 middle-aged (M = 41.62 years) and 40 elderly (M = 72.22 years) females were assessed using a dimensional choice task. Significant age differences in reaction times of choice but not in number of dimensional choices were obtained. There was a perfect rank-order correspondence between the two age groups in dimensional choices with form being the most preferred and color the least preferred perceptual dimension.

Adult↗
PubMed1979

Effects of varying irrelevant information on adult age differences in problem solving.

Sixty young (M = 20.6), middle-aged (M = 52.4), and elderly (M = 72.6) men and women solved problems which required them to match one of two stimulus arrays to a standard. On each problem one dimension (color, form, number, or position) was relevant to correct matching, and three dimensions, which were either variable or constant, were irrelevant to solution. Age and the number of variable irrelevant dimensions were the best predictors of reaction time and error scores. Young were significantly faster than middle-aged and the middle-aged were faster than the elderly. The elderly made most errors, but the young and middle-aged were not significantly different from each other. Reaction times and errors increased as the number of variable irrelevant dimensions increased. For the elderly there was a disproportionate increase in both reaction times and errors as levels of irrelevancy increased. No reliable differences were found with regard to gender. The results were discussed in terms of an age-related decline in the ability to ignore irrelevant information.

Adult↗
PubMed1977

Central/incidental recall and selective attention in young and elderly adults.

Central and incidental recall of young (Mean age=28.4) and elderly (Mean age=70.9) men and women was examined. As expected, statistically significant age differences were found for both central and incidental recall. For the eight items mean central recall (5.72) was significantly higher than mean incidental recall (2.56) at both age levels; mean incidental recall was significantly greater than chance for both age groups. Lack of an age X central/incidental interaction was interpreted as supporting a general recall deficit. No evidence was found to suggest an attentional focusing difference between young and elderly adults. Verbal labeling of the central stimuli had no effect on recall scores. Differential recall for each of eight positions of stimuli was also examined. Both age groups exhibited a spatial primacy-recency effect for central but not incidental recall. No support was obtained for an attentional interpretation of age-associated differences in learning.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Feedback effects on spatial egocentrism in old age.

In literature on egocentrism, a decline in the ability to decenter with advanced age is indicated. In the present study, the extent to which perspective-taking feedback and practice reduce the egocentric performance of elderly individuals was examined. Eighteen men (X = 68.9 years, sd. = 7.14) and 18 women (X x 72.4 years, sd. = 3.65) were each assigned to one of three treatment conditions: feedback, practice, or control. Either immediately or 2 weeks after training, subjects were post-tested on measures of spatial egocentrism, fluid intelligence, perceptual speed, and volume conservation. The effect of perspective-taking feedback was to improve scores on the spatial egocentrism task, but this influence did not directly generalize to the other ability measures. Emphasis was placed on the importance of enviromental/experiential variables in the acquistion and maintenance of cognitive abilities in old age.

Aged↗
PubMed1975

Feedback effects on the performance and self-reinforcing behavior of elderly and young adult women.

A total of 64 college-aged and elderly women participated in an experimental study of the effects of noncontingent positive feedback on simple speeded performance, performance self-evaluations, and self-reinforcing behavior (i.e., the number of S&H Green Stamps taken following feedback). Younger women self-reinforced more and held higher self-evaluations of their performance than elderly women. The treatment produced increases in all three dependent measures, and greater increases in self-reinforcing behaviors and self-evaluations were demonstrated for the elderly than for the younger women. The results are discussed in terms of age-associated differences in the susceptibility to external feedback.

Achievement↗
PubMed1975

Gerontological research in psychology published in the Journal of Gerontology 1963-1974: Perspectives and progress.

Psychological research on human subjects published in the Journal of Gerontology from 1963 through 1974 was summarized along a variety of dimensions, including subject selection procedures, sample characteristics, data analysis techniques, research design, author characteristics, and area of psychological research. Comparison of 1963-1968 with 1969-1974 showed a dramatic increase in the number of studies analyzing data for sex differences and a lessened concern for the health status of subjects. Studies of intellectual/cognitive functioning clearly dominated, while those measuring a physiological variable increased the most over the 12-year span. Discussion focused on variations among studies on definitions of age, concerns with sample description with respect to health, and sex differences.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Object recognition by component features: are there age differences.

This study extended aspects of Biederman's (1987) recognition-by-components (RBC) theory to the analysis of age differences in the recognition of incomplete visually-presented objects. RBC theory predicts that objects are recognizable or recoverable under conditions of fragmentation if a sufficient amount of essential structural information remains available. Objects are rendered nonrecoverable by the omission or obstruction of essential structural features at vertices and areas of concavity. Fifteen young adults and 15 older adults participated in a study of the effects of amount (25%, 45%, 65%) and type of fragmentation (recoverable, nonrecoverable) on object naming. Age-related declines in recognizing incomplete objects were associated with the amount of fragmentation, but type of fragmentation did not affect the performance of older adults. For the young adults, accuracy of performance was affected by both amount and type of fragmentation, consistent with Biederman's RBC theory. These results were interpreted as suggesting that age-related declines in perceptual closure performance have to do with non-structural factors such as the ability to inferentially augment degraded or missing visual information.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Training response speed in young and elderly women.

Effectiveness of response speed training on the performance of thirty adult women was assessed. Five young and five elderly female volunteers were tested in each of three experimental conditions: (1) one training session with cognitive feedback in which participants were given response rate information (control); (2) five training sessions with cognitive feedback (practice); or (3) five training sessions with cognitive feedback in which the number of S&H green stamp units earned was directly proportional to response rate (conjugate reinforcement). Dependent variables were (a) response speed on three paper-pencil tasks, and (b) postraining performance on twelve intelligence subtests chosen as far transfer tasks. Response speed increased significantly with training in both age groups, but contrary to expectation, young adults showed greater training effects than elderly adults. No significant far transfer effects were obtained.

Adult↗