ABSTRACT
Human performance is subject to vast individual differences due to genetic potential, environmental opportunities, life history, and differential societal practices in vogue at particular historical times. Thus universal principles are difficult to specify. Nevertheless, age-related changes in sensorimotor and cognitive performance present a problem in their own right as well as being precursors to other health problems. Sensorimotor and cognitive performance changes with age have been observed in three broad areas: 1) sensation and perception (e.g., vision, taste, audition); 2) psychomotor skills (e.g., coordination, muscular strength, reaction time); and 3) cognition (e.g., attention, decision-making, intelligence, learning, memory, signal detection).
