title: Age differences in strategic behavior during a computation-based skill acquisition task.
abstract: The authors evaluated mechanistic and metacognitive accounts of age differences in strategy transitions during skill acquisition. Old and young participants were trained on a task involving a shift from performing a novel arithmetic algorithm to responding via associative recognition of equation-solution pairings. The strategy shift was manipulated by task instructions that either (a) equally focused on speed and accuracy, (b) encouraged retrieval use as a method toward fast responding, or (c) offered monetary incentives for fast retrieval-based performance. Monetary incentives produced a more rapid shift to retrieval relative to standard instructions; older adults showed a greater incentives effect on retrieval use than younger adults. Monetary incentives encouraged retrieval use and response time improvements despite accuracy costs (a speed-accuracy tradeoff). The pattern of results suggested a role of metacognitive and volitional factors in retrieval shift, indicating that an associative learning deficit cannot fully account for older adults' delayed strategy shift.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27402-6170, USA. d_touron@uncg.edu
authors.forename: Dayna R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Touron
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hertzog
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D000465:Algorithms; D001245:Association Learning; D001288:Attention; D003210:Concept Formation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D009042:Motivation; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011340:Problem Solving; D011930:Reaction Time; D014836:Volition; D055815:Young Adult