| Abstract: | Performance on complex, cognitive tasks often is sensitive to low-level sensory and perceptual factors. These relations are particularly important for cognitive aging researchers because aging is associated with a variety of changes in sensory and perceptual function. In this article, the author first selectively outlines some relations between task performance and sensory function. Next, the author summarizes age-related changes in visual function and the implications of these changes for task performance, using the digit-symbol subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test as an example. Then the author offers some reasons why age-related sensory decline may not be important to all cognitive tasks. Finally, several recommendations are offered for cognitive gerontologists who want to minimize the risk that the age differences they observe are sensory in nature. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
