Us Old Folks Can See Better and React Faster Than You Young Whippersnappers

Older people can see larger, high contrast images better than younger people can, according to this summary of research from McMaster University [it is the fifth article down on this site]:

Seeing the big picture

Psychologists from McMaster University have discovered that the aging process improves a certain ability -- being able to grasp the "big picture," says Plebius Press. The study, published in the journal Neuron, dispels the myth that older people always perform more slowly and worse than younger people. Researchers measured how long it took for study participants to indicate in which direction a set of bars moved across a computer screen. Younger people were faster when the bars were small or low in contrast. However, when bars were large and high-contrast, the older people were faster. "The results are exciting," says Patrick Bennett, the study's senior author, along with Allison Sekuler, "because they show an odd case in which older people have better vision than younger people."

Click here for more information on the study.