The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that there is a differential deficit in the ability to encode contextual information with increasing age. Young, middle-aged, and elderly adults were shown target words in various quadrants of a computer screen (contexts) and were told to either (a) remember the words and their locations, (b) remember the words, or (c) tell whether the words referred to something that was alive or not. Following presentation of the words, subjects were given a recognition test for the words and were asked to identify the quadrant in which each word had been presented. If older adults have a contextual encoding deficit, than an interaction between age and instruction condition would be expected in memory for quadrants. Older adults would be expected to perform better relative to younger adults when the locations were target information (intentionally learned) than when they were contextual (not intentionally learned). Since such an interaction was not obtained, the results provide no support for the hypothesis that the elderly have an encoding deficit that is specific to contextual information.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Does social problem solving differ from other types of problem solving during the adult years?

One hundred thirteen individuals, ages 18-81, were presented with a test of social problem solving, a test of practical problem solving, the Twenty Questions task (a test of traditional problem solving), the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale--Revised Vocabulary subtest (a measure of crystallized intelligence), and Raven's Progressive Matrices (a measure of fluid intelligence). The effects of age, sex, education, and intellectual abilities on problem-solving performance were examined. Social problem solving was positively related to higher education and higher Vocabulary scores, but it was not related to age. Social problem solving and practical problem solving were significantly related to each other and to scores on the Vocabulary subtest, whereas traditional problem solving was significantly related to scores on Raven's Progressive Matrices. These results suggest that different types of problem solving are differentially related to other intellectual abilities and to age.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Critical thinking during the adult years: has the developmental function changed over the last four decades?

Age, sex, and education differences in critical thinking during the adult years were investigated. The Watson-Glaser (1980) Critical Thinking Appraisal was administered to 60 men and women between the ages of 20 and 79. Regression analyses indicated that age was significantly related to overall critical thinking: Performance decreased with increasing age. Education was also significantly related to critical thinking: Performance increased with increasing education. However, an interaction between age and education in the analysis of total critical thinking scores indicated that education was significantly related to critical thinking only in the later adult years. No sex differences were found in critical thinking performance.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Attempts to modify cognitive tempo in elderly adults.

Three experiments were conducted in an attempt to modify the cognitive tempo of elderly adults. In all three, attempts were made to modify response latency. In the first experiment, the participants were given either instructions to take as much time as they needed, instructions to respond as quickly as they could, or no instructions regarding response speed. In the second experiment, the participants observed a model who either responded more slowly, more quickly, or at the same speed typically used by elderly adults. In the third experiment, the participants were either forced to respond very slowly, forced to respond very quickly, or allowed to respond at their own rate. Only one of the experimental manipulations affected response latencies. The participants who were forced to respond very quickly in the third experiment exhibited a decrease in response latency from pretest to posttest while the participants in the other two conditions did not. There was a corresponding effect for errors; the participants in the fast condition exhibited very little change in error rate from pretest to posttest while the participants in the other two conditions made fewer errors on the posttest than on the pretest. In the third experiment, an attempt was also made to modify the error rate by training the participants in the use of a thorough and systematic scanning strategy. The strategy training had no effect on either errors or latencies.

Aged↗