Citation

Chaput S, Proteau L. J. Gerontol. B Psychol. Sci. Soc. Sci. 1996; 51(6): 346-355.

Affiliation

Dortement d'location physique, Universitae Montreal.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, Gerontological Society of America, Publisher Oxford University Press)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8931622

Abstract

The goal of the two experiments of the present study was to determine whether in an aiming task performed within a relatively long movement time (MT) bandwidth, older adults make similar use of visual information for motor control as younger adults. Older and younger subjects practiced a manual aiming task toward one (Experiment 1), or one of many (Experiment 2) small target(s) while only the target to be reached was visible (proprioception only: P) or under normal lighting condition (proprioception+vision: PV). Following practice, all subjects were transferred to the P conditions. The results of both experiments indicate that the older subjects were, during practice, as accurate as the younger ones in the PV condition. Moreover, both groups suffered a large and similar increase in aiming error in the transfer condition. This underlines that a useful source of sensory information, namely vision, has been withdrawn in transfer. This result is different from those of earlier studies in which a shorter target MT had been used (Chaput & Proteau, 1996; Proteau, Charest, & Chaput, 1994). This suggests that older adults process the sensory information available in that type of task similarly to younger subjects but at a lower speed. However, when the temporal constraints of the task are stringent, older adults might rely more on modes of control in which sensory information plays a minimal role when compared to younger subjects. Finally, the results of the second experiment suggest that, when multiple targets are used, older adults appear to program a response which is optimally suited for a "central" target.

Language: en