Normative performance and effects of age on test of everyday attention among Hong Kong adults

Abstract

This study aimed at (1) establishing normative performance on Test of Everyday Attention (TEA) of adults aged 20-79 years old in Hong Kong and (2) examining effects of age on different attention components and modalities across 20-79 years old participants. By comparing the performance of TEA in each subtest across five age groups (i.e. 20-29 years, 30-49 years, 50-59 years, 60-69 years and 70-79 years), the effects of aging on different attention components were investigated. In general, scores of all five subtests (Map Search (MS), Telephone Search (TS), Elevator Counting with Distractor (ECD), Visual Elevator (VE) and Telephone Search with Counting (TSC) differed by age significantly. Tasks involving visual selective attention were sensitive to aging while weaker age effects were shown in divided attention and auditory selective attention with only the youngest age group performed significantly better than the two oldest age groups. TEA provides a broad-based measure in assessing different attentional components across a wide age range. Different patterns of aging effects across different attention components shown in TEA suggested a domain specific age-related decline in cognitive functions but not a generally slowing of processing-speed with age. Keywords: aging, attention, Test of Everyday Attention