Nir Shalev¹ (), Sage Boettcher², Anna C. Nobre³; ¹Haifa University, ²University of Oxford, ³Yale University

Visual search tasks are widely used to study how people guide their attention amidst distractions. Participants are typically asked to find a target displayed among distractors in a static display, with attentional demands varied by increasing the number and similarity of distractors. In lifespan developmental research, visual search has been used to investigate age-related differences in attentional control. Typical findings indicate a performance decline from younger to older adulthood, alongside elevated sensitivity to added distractors. Such findings are often interpreted as evidence of declining goal-driven attentional abilities. However, previous studies comparing younger and older adults rely almost exclusively on static visual scenes. Real-life scenarios, in contrast, are constantly changing and often embed regularities that can be learned and utilised to optimise performance, reducing reliance on purely top-down guidance. We investigated how people of different ages guide searches in a dynamic display under varying levels of distraction. The Dynamic Search Task is an extended variation of a visual search task, incorporating spatiotemporal regularities that afford prediction-led guidance. Critically, we manipulated the number of visual distractors presented on each trial to study whether the distraction load interacts with search efficiency and predictions. Younger adults (ages 18–22; N = 120) and older adults (ages 68–72; N = 120) searched for multiple visual targets as they continuously faded in and out of the display among distractors (either 12 or 24 per trial). Half the targets appeared at consistent times and approximate locations throughout. Results showed lower accuracy and heightened distractor interference in older adults. However, target predictability conferred behavioral benefits regardless of age. Interestingly, in both groups, the benefits of predictions were significant only during periods of high distraction. This study enhances our understanding of age-related attentional control in dynamic contexts and supports a distinction between memory-driven and goal-directed guidance.

Acknowledgements: N.S is supported by the Israeli Science Foundation Research Grant (1073/24); A.C N Is supported by a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award (104571/Z/14/Z), James S. McDonnell Foundation Understanding Human Cognition Collaborative Award (220020448)