Effects of Age and Stimulus Repetition on Two-Choice Reaction Time

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Abstract
Subjects released one key with the right hand upon presentation of a red light and another with the left hand when a green light was presented. Each stimulus occurred an equal number of times in a sequence of 40 trials, but the probability that it would do so twice in succession was only .25. The subjects were male volunteers who ranged in age from the 20s through the 70s. Mean response latency increased with age, although variability did not. Stimulus alternations were responded to more rapidly than repetitions by subjects in all age-groups, a result consistent with an expectancy theory of choice reaction-time. A detailed analysis of the frequency distributions of reaction-times suggests that the older individuals' longer latencies reflect impaired psychomotor rather than decision-making efficiency.

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