Age-related differences in performance on a categorical visual foraging task

Abstract

Older adults often exhibit reduced performance in visual search tasks and more exploitation in foraging tasks. Target-distractor similarity-a common difficulty manipulation in visual search-can offer insight into age-related differences in visual attention and foraging strategies. However, this manipulation has rarely been assessed with categorical information or been implemented in foraging tasks, which could enhance the ecological validity of such paradigms. This study investigated age-related differences in a foraging task using a categorical target-distractor similarity manipulation. Younger adults (aged 18-35 years, n = 65) and older adults (aged 55-80 years, n = 66) without cognitive impairment completed an online foraging task, where they searched for multiple target objects belonging to a specific category (e.g., "bed") among distractors from either high similarity categories (e.g., "furniture") or low similarity categories (e.g., "clothes"). Older participants were generally slower, collected fewer targets, and showed less search efficiency in the high similarity condition. However, both age groups demonstrated similar foraging strategies, showing slightly more exploitation in the high similarity condition. Target-distractor similarity appeared to increase demands on attentional control, especially for older participants. Nonetheless, exploration-exploitation behavior was less affected, suggesting that older participants attempted to mitigate the cognitive demands of target-distractor similarity by strategies such as collecting fewer targets. These findings indicate age-related differences in categorical search and highlight how older adults can adapt to increased cognitive control demands to maintain optimal foraging behavior.