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C Hertzog

Publications and source records attributed to C Hertzog.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Do ability-performance relationships differentiate age and practice effects in visual search?

Relationships between abilities and performance in visual search were investigated for young and old adults. Ss received extensive practice on category search task. A consistent version allowed development of an automatic attention response; a varied version allowed general performance improvements. Transfer conditions assessed learning. General ability, induction, semantic knowledge, working memory, perceptual speed, semantic memory access, and psychomotor speed were assessed. LISREL models revealed that general ability and semantic memory access predicted initial performance for both ages. Improvements on both the consistent and varied tasks were predicted by perceptual speed. Ability-performance relationships indexed performance changes but were not predictive of learning (i.e., automatic process vs. general efficiency). Qualitative differences in the ability-transfer models suggest age differences in learning.

Adolescent↗

Long-term retention of skilled visual search: do young adults retain more than old adults?

Young and old Ss received extensive consistent-mapping visual search practice (3,000 trials). The Ss returned to the laboratory following a 16-month retention interval. Retention of skilled visual search was assessed using the trained stimuli (assessment of retention of stimulus-specific learning) and using new stimuli (assessment of retention of task-specific learning). All Ss, regardless of age group, demonstrated impressive retention. However, age-related retention differences favoring the young were observed when retention of stimulus-specific learning was assessed. No age-related retention differences were observed when task-specific learning was assessed. The data suggest that age-related retention capabilities depend on the type of learning assessed.

Adult↗

Age differences in mental rotation task performance: the influence of speed/accuracy tradeoffs.

Young and old subjects performed a mental rotation task with a within-subject instructional manipulation of speed/accuracy criteria. The three sets of instructions emphasized speed, accuracy, or both speed and accuracy equally. Both age groups changed reaction time (RT) in response to instructions, but there was no Age x Instruction interaction. Whereas young subjects showed decreases in accuracy with decreasing RT, older adults showed relatively stable levels of accuracy with decreasing RT, suggesting that young subjects were more willing to sacrifice accuracy for improvement in speed. Speed/accuracy operating characteristics for the two groups did not overlap, suggesting that age differences in response criteria cannot completely account for age differences in mental rotation performance.

Adolescent↗

Intraindividual change in text recall of the elderly.

Patterns of change and variability in text recall performance were assessed in seven elderly women by testing them weekly for up to 2 years. Results showed markedly different patterns of intraindividual change in gist recall performance for different participants. The two women whose performance declined were characterized by deteriorating physical health. Texts having female protagonists yielded superior recall performance. There was significant intraindividual variability after adjustment for text effects, which may indicate that weekly fluctuations in psychological states of the participants influenced their memory performance.

Age Factors↗

Short-term longitudinal change in cognitive performance in later life.

Changes in mean performance on memory, information processing, and intellectual ability tasks over a 3-year period were examined. The sample consisted of 328 community-dwelling men and women (from an original sample of 484 individuals) aged 55-86 years. Ss completed tasks yielding measures of verbal processing time, working memory, implicit memory, vocabulary, verbal fluency, world knowledge, reading comprehension, word recall, and text recall. The results showed significant average decline on working memory, verbal fluency, and world knowledge. There were also interactions for 2 processing time measures and working memory, showing greater decline in the earlier-born cohort group than in the later-born cohort group. A step-down analysis revealed that covarying declines in other variables, including processing time, did not eliminate significant declines in working memory, verbal fluency, and world knowledge.

Adult↗

Evidence of differential stability of state and trait anxiety in adults.

This study used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to assess the differential longitudinal stabilities of state and trait anxiety. In 1985 and 1987, 227 adult volunteers (ages 22-78) rated themselves on established state and trait questionnaires. In addition, aggregated-state anxiety was measured by self-rated frequency of state anxiety experienced over the previous month. Analysis of split-half subscales from single Trait and State Anxiety scales showed the State Anxiety true score factor to have a significantly lower unstandardized autoregression coefficient (.57 vs. .91), indicating less longitudinal stability. Additional models found longitudinal factor correlations .90, .72, and .66 for Trait, Aggregate-State, and State Anxiety, respectively, further establishing the differential stability of each. There were no significant age differences in longitudinal stability or in within-occasion state-trait factor correlations.

Adult↗

Relationships between intellectual control beliefs and psychometric intelligence in adulthood.

This longitudinal study examined perceived control of intelligence and its relationship with intellectual performance. A large sample (ages 43-84) was administered the short form of Lachman's PIC and psychometric tests of eight intellectual abilities in both 1985 and 1987. There were significant cross-sectional age differences in the three scales: Internal (INT), Powerful Others (POW), and Chance (CHA). The three scales correlated with all intellectual abilities, with relationships being largest for POW. The PIC scales showed lower test-retest correlations than the intelligence tests. Individual differences in change in POW and CHA were also correlated with prior levels of psychometric intelligence, and path analyses suggested a small but significant prediction of change in POW by prior levels of intelligence.

Adult↗

Relationships between metamemory, memory predictions, and memory task performance in adults.

A cross-sectional sample of adults recalled categorized word lists and narrative texts. Subjects gave performance predictions before each of 3 recall trials for each task. Older subjects had poorer memory performance and also predicted lower performance levels than did younger subjects. The LISREL models suggested (a) direct effects of memory self-efficacy (MSE) on initial predictions; (b) upgrading of prediction-performance correlations across trials, determined by direct effects of performance on subsequent predictions; (c) significant effects of a higher order verbal memory factor on MSE; and (d) an independent relationship of text recall ability to initial text recall performance predictions. These results lend support to the theoretical treatment of predictions as task-specific MSE judgments.

Adult↗

Ability correlates of memory performance in adulthood and aging.

The predictive relationships between an array of cognitive process and intellectual ability variables and text- and word-recall performance were examined. A sample of 584 men and women from 3 age groups (19-36, 55-69, and 70-86 years) completed a battery of 23 tasks marking 2 latent criterion variables and 10 latent predictor variables. The results indicated that (a) individual differences in process and ability variables predict performance on text and word recall, accounting for approximately half of the variance; (b) the pattern of predictors is quite similar for text and word recall; (c) age-related differences in text and word recall can be substantially accounted for by individual differences in constituent abilities, particularly indicators of verbal speed and working memory; and (d) there is some evidence to suggest that the pattern of ability-performance relationships varies across age, but such interactions appear to be relatively small.

Adult↗

Measurement of affective states in adults. Evaluation of an adjective rating scale instrument.

A cross-sectional sample of adults, ages 20-79, were administered an adjective rating scale instrument measuring multiple affective states, including items from the Profile of Mood States (POMS) instrument. Confirmatory item factor analysis supported, for the most part, a priori assignments of items to scales based upon prior research, but revealed a few small, additional item factors that were cross-validated in a second sample. Items measuring different aspects of psychological distress, including anxiety and depressive affect, showed appreciable skew and kurtosis, with a substantial proportion of respondents indicating no perceived distress. Items measuring psychological well-being tended to show more normal response distributions. Tests of age-related invariance in item factor structure indicated that the unstandardized factor pattern weights (loadings) were not fully equivalent across two age groups, but showed that the same configuration of items loading on factors was supported. The scales perform well enough to justify continued use in older populations, but further research on the contributions of item distributions to age differences in factor loadings is needed.

Adult↗

Stability and change in adult intelligence: 2. Simultaneous analysis of longitudinal means and covariance structures.

We analyzed data on psychometric intelligence from the Seattle Longitudinal Study, simultaneously estimating longitudinal factors, their covariance structure, and their mean levels. Data on five Thurstone Primary Mental Abilities subtests were available for 412 adults, ages 22-70 at first test, who were tested three times at 7-year intervals. A previous longitudinal factor analysis had shown high stability of individual differences (covariance stability) in general intelligence for three adult age groups. We extended that model to estimate factor means. All three age groups showed high levels of covariance stability, but differed sharply in their mean profiles. The young group showed increasing levels of general intelligence, the middle-aged group had stable levels of intelligence, and the old group showed salient, approximately linear, decline. The patterns of stability in middle-age, followed by mean decline and high covariance stability in old age, suggest a normative developmental transition from a stability pattern to a decline pattern of general intelligence, with the inflection point occurring somewhere around age 60.

Adult↗

A longitudinal study of negative emotional states and adjustment from early childhood through adolescence.

The relations among various negative emotional and behavioral characteristics (e.g., aggression, anxiety, undercompliance, depressive mood) and adjustment were examined through use of data from the 31-year-old New York Longitudinal Study. 75 white, middle-class children were rated on these negative characteristics from infancy to adolescence. Measures of family, peer, and personal adjustment were also obtained. Because of the longitudinal nature of the data, we were able to use structural equation models to address the following questions: (1) How stable are these negative behaviors from early life through adolescence? (2) What is the degree of relation between these emotional characteristics and adjustment in childhood and adolescence? and (3) To what degree do these emotional characteristics differentially predict multiple adjustment dimensions in adolescence? 2 factors of negative emotional behavior, labeled as Aggression and Affect, respectively, were identified in early and late childhood and were found to have relatively high stability of individual differences. Aggression significantly predicted adolescent maladjustment, whereas Affect had no independent prediction of maladjustment. Moreover, emotional problems provided better prediction of adolescent adjustment problems than did earlier childhood adjustment ratings.

Adolescent↗

Effects of cognitive training on primary mental ability structure.

We report results of the first empirical test, as far as we know, of the assumption of structural invariance of latent constructs from pretest to posttest in cognitive training research on the elderly. In all, 401 participants in the Seattle Longitudinal Study, over 62 years old, received a 5-hr test battery at pre- and posttest that included 16 ability tests, marking the five primary abilities of Spatial Orientation, Inductive Reasoning, Numerical Ability, Verbal Ability, and Perceptual Speed. A total of 229 of our subjects received 5 hr of individual training on either Spatial Orientation or Inductive Reasoning. Restricted factor analysis with the LISREL algorithm tested the hypothesis of measurement equivalence across test occasions, separately for the control subjects and for each of the training groups. When ability-specific cognitive training intervenes, no structural change is observed for abilities not subject to intervention. However, slight shifts occurred in the optimal regression weights for the different markers for the training target abilities.

Aged↗

Beyond autoregressive models: some implications of the trait-state distinction for the structural modeling of developmental change.

The use of structural modeling techniques to fit change concepts, including developmental ones, to repeated-measurements data has been rather firmly but uncritically wedded to autoregressive model specifications. The uncritical application of an autoregressive specification to repeated measures does not take into account subtleties of conceptions of stability and change (e.g., the trait-state distinction) that are now recognized in the behavioral research literature. We review the basic distinction between trait and state and examine the implications of the different possibilities for modeling developmental phenomena. The arguments are illustrated with empirical examples.

Anxiety↗

Stability and change in adult intelligence: 1. Analysis of longitudinal covariance structures.

We address two questions of central interest in adult intellectual development: the equivalence of psychometric tests' measurement properties at different ages, and the stability of individual differences in intelligence over time. We performed a series of longitudinal factor analyses using the LISREL program to model longitudinal data from Schaie's Seattle Longitudinal Study. The results indicate complete invariance in the loadings of five subtests of Thurstone's Primary Mental Abilities battery on a general intelligence factor. Individual differences in general intelligence were highly stable over 14-year epochs, with standardized factor correlations averaging about .9 between adjacent 7-year testing intervals. These results indicate that most individuals in this relatively select longitudinal sample maintained their relative ordering in intelligence.

Adult↗