Abstract
Sustained attention is critical when performing tasks that provide minimal stimulation. A measure of this facet of attention is the Slip Induction Task (SIT). In this task participants first learned a sequence of hand movements cued by arrows, then they performed a series of alteration trials in which they occasionally encountered unexpected arrow cues that required them to deviate from the learned sequence. The unexpected arrow cues differed from the routine in either in spatial location only, in pointed direction only or in both location and direction. The SIT was administered to 25 older and 30 younger adults and surprisingly, while both age groups committed the most errors when only the pointed direction of the cue changed, the older adults made fewer action slips overall. This increased accuracy in the older adults however was also accompanied by a slower pace of task, suggesting that older adults may have favored accuracy over speed. Patterns of responding before and after correctly performed trials versus error trials were also examined and will be discussed with regard to what they reveal about potential age differences in the strategies used in performing the task.
