노화가 운동감각의 변별력에 미치는 영향 : 과제 목적의 작용 The Influence of Task Goals = Kinesthetic-Discrimination Sensitivity in Young and Elderly Adults

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The purpose of this study was to describe possible age-related differences in the physical stimulus-psychological response relationship in kinesthetic processing. Specifically, this investigation attempted to quantify the ability and to discover a possible explanation for perceptual continua in psychophysics of kinesthesis which have been described by a prothetic or metathetic continuum. This study consisted of two experiments in which the subjects were required to make distinctions of location and extent movements. Twenty-four right-handed college-aged students and 24 right-handed healthy older adults moved their right arm to three criterion locations and extents on a linear positioning device while blindfolded. Seven standard comparison combinations were presented randomly over 20 blocks equalling a total of 140 trials for location and extent movements, respectively. The method of constant stimuli was utilized to determine the point of subjective equality, just noticeable difference, constant error, and Weber ratio. The results were discussed in terms of the theoretical constructs as well as the effects of aging. The failure to find differences between the age groups suggested that age-related declines cannot be generalized to all perceptual systems and that location and extent movements can best be described by a metathetic continuum.