Long-term maintenance of retest learning in young old and oldest old adults.
This study examined the maintenance of retest learning benefits in young old and oldest old adults over an 8-month period in 3 cognitive abilities: reasoning, perceptual-motor speed, and visual attention. Twenty-four young old (aged 70-79 years, M = 74.2) and 23 oldest old adults (aged 80-90 years, M = 83.6) who participated in a previously published study (Yang, L., Krampe, R. T., & Baltes, P. B. [2006]. Basic forms of cognitive plasticity extended into the oldest-old: Retest learning, age, and cognitive functioning. Psychology and Aging, 21, 372-378) returned after an 8-month delay to complete 2 follow-up retest sessions. The results demonstrated that both young old and oldest old groups maintained about 50% of the original retest learning benefits. This extends the earlier findings of substantial long-term cognitive training maintenance in young old adults to a context of retest learning with oldest old adults, and thus portrays a positive message for cognitive plasticity of the oldest old.
Yang
Lixia
L
Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3, Canada. lixiay@ryerson.ca
Krampe
Ralf T
RT
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001288:Attention; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D011340:Problem Solving; D011594:Psychometrics; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011930:Reaction Time; D012153:Retention, Psychology; D012691:Serial Learning