Eye Movements and Strategy Shift in Skill Acquisition: Adult Age Differences

Touron, Dayna R.; Hertzog, Christopher; Frank, D. · 2010 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1093/geronb/gbq076

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Summary

This study investigates age-related differences in skill acquisition, specifically focusing on the transition from effortful visual search to fluent memory retrieval. The research addresses the validity of strategy self-reports and explores whether eye movements during this transition are purposeful information-seeking behaviors or automatic, unintentional actions. Prior research suggested that older adults exhibit "retrieval reluctance," delaying the shift to memory-based strategies despite sufficient learning. This study aimed to validate self-reported strategies using eye-tracking data and determine if inefficient, automatic eye movements contribute to age differences in performance. The researchers employed a noun-pair lookup (NP) task with 40 participants (20 young adults, aged 18–21; 20 older adults, aged 59–76). Participants learned noun pairs and performed trials where they verified if a central probe matched a pair in a lookup table. Eye movements were tracked at 120 Hz. The design included standard trials with the table present and memory test trials where the table was either absent or filled with uninformative placeholders. Participants reported their strategy (scanning vs. retrieval) after each trial. This manipulation allowed the researchers to distinguish between intentional gazes to the table for information and automatic gazes driven by habit or attentional capture. Results confirmed that strategy self-reports were generally valid, as reported scanning trials involved significantly more gazes to the lookup table than reported retrieval trials. However, older adults exhibited inefficient eye movements: they made more gazes to the table overall and continued to gaze at the table even when reporting memory retrieval. Crucially, during memory trials with a filled table of placeholders, older adults frequently gazed at the table despite knowing it contained no useful information. Young adults rarely gazed at the placeholder table. This indicated that older adults' eye movements to the table during retrieval trials were often automatic and not driven by information-seeking needs. These unnecessary gazes persisted even after extensive practice, whereas young adults' automatic gazes diminished over time. The findings suggest that while strategy self-reports are valid indicators of cognitive strategy use, they do not capture automatic, inefficient eye movements that disproportionately affect older adults. The study concludes that age differences in performance are partly driven by older adults' inability to inhibit automatic attentional capture by previously relevant stimuli. This "retrieval reluctance" is not solely a strategic choice but is compounded by automatic visual behaviors that slow response times. The results highlight the importance of considering both intentional strategy shifts and automatic motor/attentional processes when analyzing age-related declines in skill acquisition.

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• eye movements scanning