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Age and Simple Reaction Time: Decade Differences for 5,325 Subjects
Abstract
In a booth at a public exhibition entitled "Medicines for Man," 5,325 men, women, and children carried out a 1-minute test of simple reaction time (RT) with 1 to 10 second randomized variable preparatory interval (PI). They recorded their ages by decade. Average RT over the last eight (of ten) trials increased progressively from the 20s up to age 60 and over, and downward to the teens and under 10s. The single fastest RT in each test varied much less with age, only the 20s being clearly faster than the rest, with the under 10s slower. Within-subject variability of RT was increased only in the under 10s and over 60s. Ability to sustain attention during the longer PIs may underlie the gross average RT differences with age, and possibly some more basic neural property the superiority of the 20s in fastest RT.
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“Previous studies have uniformly found significant age-related increases in SRT latencies (Wilkinson and Allison, 1989; Fozard et al., 1994; Inui, 1997; Anstey et al., 2005; Commodari and Guarnera, 2008; Deary et al., 2010; Godefroy et al., 2010; Era et al., 2011; Dykiert et al., 2012a; see Table 1).”
From Factors influencing the latency of simple reaction time (2015) · cites this paper as Wilkinson and Allison, 1989
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Vaillant, G. E., & Mukamal, K. J. (2001) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.158.6.839 · Cited by 373
Factors influencing the latency of simple reaction time
Woods, D. L., Wyma, J. M., Yund, E. W., Herron, T. J., & Reed, B. (2015) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2015.00131 · Cited by 336
“Previous studies have uniformly found significant age-related increases in SRT latencies (Wilkinson and Allison, 1989; Fozard et al., 1994; Inui, 1997; Anstey et al., 2005; Commodari and Guarnera, 2008; Deary et al., 2010; Godefroy et al., 2010; Era et al., 2011; Dykiert et al., 2012a; see Table 1).”
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Improvement of Naturally Aged Skin With Vitamin A (Retinol)
Kafi, R., Kwak, H. S. R., Schumacher, W. E., Cho, S., Hanft, V. N., Hamilton, T. A., King, A. L., Neal, J. D., Varani, J., Fisher, G. J., et al. (2007) · Archives of Dermatology · doi:10.1001/archderm.143.5.606 · Cited by 247
Blatter, K., Graw, P., Münch, M. Y., Knoblauch, V., Wirz‐Justice, A., & Cajochen, C. (2006) · Behavioural Brain Research · doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2005.11.018 · Cited by 235
Metadata
- Authors
- Wilkinson, R. T., & Allison, S.
- Affiliations
- Medical Research Council (GB)
- Venue
- Journal of Gerontology
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 1989-03-01
- Volume
- 44
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- P29-P35
- ISSN
- 0022-1422 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2074049590
- Cited by
- 119
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 5 · 2013: 3 · 2012: 8
- FWCI
- 5.14
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Gerontology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Keywords
- simple reaction time, age differences, reaction time, preparatory period, attentional control, within-person variability, children, older adults
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aging, Attention, Child, Humans, Middle Aged, Neuropsychological Tests, Reaction Time
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