Selective Attentional Processing to Fall-Relevant Stimuli Among Older Adults Who Fear Falling

• Published in: Experimental aging research Vol. 37; no. 3; pp. 330 - 345
• Main Authors: Brown, Lesley A., White, Patti, Doan, Jonathan B., de Bruin, Natalie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia, PA Taylor & Francis Group 01.05.2011; Taylor & Francis; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Accidental Falls - prevention & control; Adult. Elderly; Aged; Aging - psychology; Attention; Biological and medical sciences; Cues; Decision Making; Developmental psychology; Discrimination (Psychology); Falls; Fear; Fear & phobias; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Judgment; Male; Middle Aged; Older people; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Psychological aspects; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reaction Time; Recognition (Psychology); Risk factors; Semantics; Human; Affect affectivity; Selective attention; Fear; Cognition; Fall; Emotion emotionality; Experimental study; Elderly

Fear of falling is known to affect more than half of community-dwelling older adults over 60 years of age. This fear is associated with physical and psychological effects that increase the risk of falling. The authors' theory is that attentional processing biases may exist in this population th...