Age and Iconic Read-out

Abstract

Letter recognition was investigated in 16 young adults (mean age = 21) and in 16 older men (mean age = 64) by exposing seven-letter strings for brief periods followed by a mask. Young adults were able to identify three letters at a rate of 27 msec per letter, a value which is typical of other reports. Any additional letters were identified at a much slower rate. In contrast, older adults were able to identify only two letters, at a rate of 35 msec per letter. Older men thus showed a decline in both the amount of and rate at which information was encoded from the icon within a fixation period. These findings have implications for experiments involving visual arrays.