Effects of age and available response time on ability to step over an obstacle

A study of 24 old and 24 young adults for their ability to avoid an obstacle during walking reveals that younger people have higher mean rates-of-success (RS) than older people whose RS decreases with decreasing available response time (ART). Lower extremity simple reaction time (SRT) tests reveal an 80 ms delay in the SRT of older people compared to that of younger people. A 50 or 100 ms delay in responding to the presence of obstacle reduces the RS of people of any age, indicating that age-related variations in SRT do not predict variations in the ability to avoid obstacles.