title: Methods of enhancing concept attainment in older adults.
abstract: Practice with informative feedback and active training were found to be effective in enhancing concept attainment in older adults. Fifty male and 50 female Ss, aged 60-79 years, were given a pretest and posttest, each involving conjunctive concept-identification problems. The practice-plus-informative-feedback groups (right-wrong, nothing-wrong, and right-nothing) discovered the concepts faster than the active training group. The last group outperformed a control group. These results, in contrast to previous studies, demonstrate that the elderly are capable of solving complex cognitive tasks, like younger Ss, by using their own self-generated strategies and currently available information. This is consistent with recent theory that emphasizes experiential factors as the basis for performance deficit in cognitive tasks for older adults.
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D003210:Concept Formation; D005246:Feedback; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011340:Problem Solving