Age-specific binding effects

3x2x2 design
factor 1: condition (feature-alone color, feature-alone shape, binding)
factor 2: block (two experimental runs/condition/participants)
factor 3: group (old vs young participants)

In this study, we compared the electrophysiological activity associated with the binding process in young (N=22, mean age=28.5) and old (N=22; mean age=67.4) participants in a change detection task. Analysis of event-related brain potentials (ERP) focused on the differences between feature-alone (color or shape) and feature-conjunction (color-shape) conditions in stimulus encoding. Independently of aging, discrimination ability was significantly attenuated in the binding condition. The effect, however, was more pronounced in old participants. ERP components related to the visual feature detection and processing (posterior N1 and frontal P2) were not modulated in the binding condition. Only in old participants, a late positive ERP component (LPC) was increased signaling the allocation of additional resources.

本研究采用3x2x2的实验设计，其中因素1为条件（特征独立颜色、特征独立形状、绑定），因素2为实验块（两次实验运行/条件/参与者），因素3为组别（老年组与年轻组）。在本次研究中，我们对比了年轻参与者（N=22，平均年龄=28.5岁）和老年参与者（N=22；平均年龄=67.4岁）在变化检测任务中与绑定过程相关的电生理活动。事件相关脑电位（ERP）分析集中于刺激编码过程中特征独立（颜色或形状）与特征结合（颜色-形状）条件之间的差异。不受年龄影响的是，在绑定条件下，区分能力显著减弱，然而这一效应在老年参与者中更为显著。与视觉特征检测与处理（后N1和额叶P2）相关的ERP成分在绑定条件下并未发生调节。仅在老年参与者中，晚期正电位成分（LPC）增加，表明分配了额外的资源。