University of Twente Student Theses
As of Friday, 8 August 2025, the current Student Theses repository is no longer available for thesis uploads. A new Student Theses repository will be available starting Friday, 15 August 2025.
Does Aging Affect Sustained Attention?: A Comparative Study Using Attentional Tasks
Suhani, Andrei (2025) Does Aging Affect Sustained Attention?: A Comparative Study Using Attentional Tasks.
|
PDF
936kB |
| Abstract: | As global populations age, workforce shortages in cognitively demanding professions like air traffic control (ATC) are generating discussions about increasing the retirement age. However, such policy shifts raise concerns about the potential impact of aging on core cognitive functions, particularly sustained attention. This study investigates whether sustained attention declines with age, using two tasks: the Sustained Attention to Response Task (SART) and Mackworth’s Clock Test (MCT), administered to 29 participants across three age groups (18–44, 45–54, 55–65). Performance was measured using d-prime (d′) scores, alongside secondary measures including eye-tracking data and self-reported measurements. Contrary to initial hypotheses and background neuroscientific expectations, results revealed no significant decline in sustained attention across age groups. In fact, older participants performed comparably or slightly better than their younger counterparts in some cases. Regression analyses also indicated that perceived task difficulty significantly predicted performance. These findings challenge assumptions about cognitive aging and suggest that older adults may retain the capacity to perform attentionally demanding tasks, particularly when bolstered by experience or adaptive strategies. The study has implications for retirement policy, workforce planning, and our broader understanding of cognitive aging. |
| Item Type: | Essay (Master) |
| Clients: | The Royal Netherlands Aerospace Centre, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Faculty: | BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences |
| Subject: | 77 psychology |
| Programme: | Psychology MSc (66604) |
| Link to this item: | https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/107195 |
| Export this item as: | BibTeX EndNote HTML Citation Reference Manager |
Show download statistics for this publication
Show download statistics for this publicationRepository Staff Only: item control page