Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/3265
Title: Inconsistency in serial choice decision and motor reaction times dissociate in younger and older adults
Authors: Bunce, D
MacDonald, SWS
Hultsch, DF
Issue Date: 2004
Publisher: Elsevier
Citation: Brain and Cognition 56(3): 320-327, Dec 2004
Abstract: Intraindividual variability (inconsistency) in reaction time (RT) latencies was investigated in a group of younger (M = 25.46 years) and older (M = 69.29 years) men. Both groups performed 300 trials in 2-, 4-, and 8-choice RT conditions where RTs for decision and motor components of the task were recorded separately. A dissociation was evident in that inconsistency was greater in older adults for decision RTs when task demands relating to the number of choices and fatigue arising from time-on-task were high. For younger persons, a weak trend toward greater inconsistency in motor RTs was evident. The results are consistent with accounts suggesting that inconsistency in neurobiological mechanisms increases with age, and that attentional lapses or fluctuations in executive control contribute to RT inconsistency.
URI: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/3265
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278262604002015
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2004.08.006
ISSN: 0278-2626
Appears in Collections:Psychology
Dept of Life Sciences Research Papers

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