Effects of environmental support and strategy training on older adults' use of context.
Age-related cognitive differences may be due, in part, to difficulties using task-relevant context in a proactive manner. Two studies evaluated different methods for increasing older adults' use of context in the AX-Continuous Performance Task (H. E. Rosvold, A. F. Mirsky, I. Sarason, E. D. Bransome, & L. H. Beck, 1956), which evaluates components of context processing. The results suggest that (a) age differences in the use of context are not due to reduced access to cue information, (b) directed strategy training made older adults' context processing performance more like that of young adults, and (c) similar performance changes could be observed with less directed instruction and extended practice. These results suggest that age-related differences in context processing can be ameliorated by directed strategy training or extended practice.
Paxton
Jessica L
JL
Department of Psychology, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63139, USA. jlpaxton@artsci.wustl.edu
Barch
Deanna M
DM
Storandt
Martha
M
Braver
Todd S
TS
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D001364:Awareness; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011340:Problem Solving; D011594:Psychometrics; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012016:Reference Values; D012153:Retention, Psychology