Inferential problem solving in young children.

Children younger than 7–8 yrs of age have been considered incapable of inferential problem solving, defined as the combination of separately acquired behavior segments in order to solve a novel problem. This lack of inferential ability has been attributed to a deficit in spontaneous mediation. The present paper reports an experiment which demonstrates that 5–6-yr-olds are capable of inferential problem solving. Ss were 40 children, aged 5 yrs, 0 mo to 5 yrs, 11 mo, who had a mean score of 105.72 on the English Picture Vocabulary Test. The finding cannot be explained by the mediation-deficit hypothesis. An alternative interpretation is offered which argues that young children's inferential performance is constrained not by an inability to integrate separate or past experiences, but by their understanding of the separate elements involved. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive development and role-taking ability in boys and girls from 7 to 12.

10 males and 10 females at each of 3 age levels (7, 9, and 12 yrs), matched on IQ, were given a social role-taking task and 2 Piagetian tasks. Performance on all tasks generally increased with age, but correlations between performances on the 2 types of tasks were generally not significant. There were no significant sex differences on the tasks. IQ was correlated with performance on the role-taking task but not with the Piagetian tasks, which were not highly correlated with each other. The ability to "think about possibilities" did not differ significantly for the age or sex groups, but this ability was significantly related to performance on the experimental tasks for the younger Ss. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Performance of male and female children, adolescents and adults on spatial tasks that involve everyday objects and settings.

Administered 9 spatial tasks to 52 male and 52 female children (aged 7–9 yrs), 30 male and 33 female adolescents (aged 18–19 yrs), and 46 male and 48 female undergraduate (adult) Ss. Eight of the tests involved stimuli and settings with which Ss would have everyday experience. Significant sex differences were observed on 2 of the 9 tasks: estimating the length of a floor and identifying embedded figures. Adults performed better than other age groups on the embedded figures task and a wall height estimation task. In those cases where sex differences were observed, the effect sizes were well below .100, suggesting the magnitudes of sex differences were minimal. The fact that no sex differences were found on 7 or the 9 spatial tasks allows, at most, the statement that males perform better than females on some spatial tasks. There is no justification for the global statement that males excel in spatial abilities. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Episodic spatial memory in adulthood.

Two experiments examined age-related differences in memory for spatial location information in a museum exhibit (Exp 1) and in a secretarial office (Exp 2). In Exp 1, Ss were the visitors to the exhibit (N?=?302, 15–74 yrs of age), and memory was assessed using a map test. In Exp 2, Ss were 64 young adults (M?=?21.2 yrs) and 32 older adults (M?=?71.2 yrs), and memory was assessed using both a map test and a relocation test. The relocation test required Ss to replace the to-be-remembered targets where they appeared at study. Exp 1 showed an age-related decline in spatial memory performance, and it placed the onset of this decline in the 6th decade of life. Exp 2 showed an age-related decline on both tests, but age effects were smaller on the relocation test than on the map test, and when Ss knew that spatial memory would be tested than when they were not informed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Functional mapping of human memory using PET: Comparisons of conceptual and perceptual tasks.

Tested whether different neurological regions subserved the conceptual and perceptual memory components by using positron emission tomography (PET). Regional cerebral blood flow (RCBF) of 14 Ss (mean age 25 yrs) during 2 conceptual tasks of semantic cued recall and semantic association was compared to a control condition in which Ss made semantic associations to nonstudied words. RCBF during 2 perceptual tasks of word fragment cued recall and word fragment completion was also compared to a word fragment nonstudied control condition. There were clear dissociations in RCBF that reflected differences in brain regions subserving the 2 types of memory processes. Conceptual processing produced more activation in the left frontal and temporal cortex and the lateral aspect of the bilateral inferior parietal lobule. Perceptual memory processing activated the right frontal and temporal cortex and the bilateral posterior areas. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Encoding and retrieval operations in relation to age.

In 2 experiments, the memory performance of a total of 40 young (mean age 18 yrs) and 40 elderly (mean age 75 yrs) Ss was compared in a procedure that allowed testing of the target words twice, first for recognition and then for cued recall. Conventional analyses of the recall and recognition data gave results that echoed previous findings that (a) significant age differences were found in recall but not in recognition, and (b) the recall differences were minimized when the target items were recalled in the context of cues highly related to the target items. In accordance with contemporary theoretical conceptions of memory, a feasible interpretation of these results is that memory loss is due to a retrieval deficit. However, further analyses showed that both young and older Ss failed to recognize many words that they subsequently recalled, suggesting that some caution is necessary in interpreting overall recall and recognition memory performance. Possible differences in encoding and retrieval processes as a function of age are discussed. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Association between aerobic fitness and visuospatial performance in healthy older adults.

Examined whether chronic physical exercise activity is associated with better neurocognitive performance in older adults. 105 men participated in 1 of 3 age groups (18–28, 35–45, and 60–73 yrs). For each age group, Ss were classified as high or low in fitness on the basis of self-reported activity levels and the results of a submaximal bicycle ergometer test. A comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests was administered to each S, and older Ss scored significantly lower than the younger groups on most tests. Significant differences between high- and low-fit Ss were found only on tasks with heavy visuospatial demands, and these differences were most notable in the older adult group. These findings suggest that participation in aerobic exercise activity selectively preserves some cognitive functions that normally decline with age. The benefits of activity appear to be most evident on tasks that require visuospatial processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bilateral frontal lobe disease and selective delayed response deficits in humans.

Compared the performance of 6 male patients (aged 24–65 yrs) with frontal lobe disease; 17 amnesic male patients (12 with etiology of alcoholic Korsakoff's disease [mean age 53.6 yrs] and 5 with surgically treated ruptured anterior communicating artery aneurysm [mean age 45.6 yrs]), and 12 male alcoholic controls (mean age 39.7 yrs) with no memory impairment on delayed alternation (DA) and delayed response (DR) tasks, known to be sensitive to frontal lobe damage in nonhuman primates. Ss (except the Korsakoff and alcoholic Ss) completed the Wechsler Memory Scale, and all Ss completed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. Results show that bilateral frontal lobe damage was associated with impairment on both tasks. There was no relation between performances on DA and DR and performance on the Wechsler Memory Scale, strengthening the suggestion that the former tasks are not sensitive to anterograde amnesia in humans. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Why do adult age differences increase with task complexity?

A total of 451 adults between 18 and 80 yrs of age participated in 2 studies conducted to investigate causes of the phenomenon that adult age differences in cognitive performance frequently increase with increased task complexity. All Ss performed 4 cognitive tasks at each of 3 levels of complexity. The strongest predictors of performance on the intermediate and complex versions of the tasks were performance on the simpler versions of the same tasks and a composite measure of working memory. It was concluded that one cause of the age-complexity phenomenon is that more complex cognitive tasks place greater demands on a working-memory resource that declines with increased age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of contextual organization on spatial memory of middle-aged and older women.

Examined the memory performance of 20 women aged 31–59 yrs and 20 aged 65–85. Ss reconstructed spatial arrays, replacing miniature objects in either a contextually organized panorama or a noncontextually organized bank of cubicles. Performance of the middle-aged Ss did not differ between the 2 tasks. Older Ss performed as well as middle-aged Ss in the panorama task, but in the cubicles task their scores were lower than in the panorama task and lower than those of the younger Ss in the cubicles task. Results support the conclusion that in a task that allows the use of existing contextual organization as a memory aid, age differences in memory performance disappear. Age differences may be limited to tasks that remove previously learned relationships between items (as in recall of lists of unrelated words), requiring Ss to invent an organizational structure to facilitate recall. Though such tasks predominate in research, they probably do not represent the memory problems met in everyday life, especially by older adults. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in everyday memory: Laboratory analogues of telephone number recall.

Three experiments were conducted to examine age differences in memory for telephone numbers by adults ranging from 18 to 85 yrs of age. In the 1st 2 studies, using visual simultaneous presentation, age declines in immediate recall were evident on 10-digit numbers but not on 3-digit numbers. With 7-digit numbers, the youngest group performed significantly better than the oldest (aged 70–85 yrs) group. In the 2nd study, more marked age declines occurred when Ss had to redial a number after a busy signal. The 3rd experiment replicated the observed aging pattern with auditory sequential presentation. Also, chunked presentation of local telephone numbers resulted in high performance for old and young in sequential recall. The findings were discussed in relation to task processing demands and practical issues related to telephone number recall. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Short-term memory processes in children with reading and arithmetic learning disabilities.

Examined the role of phonemic coding in short-term memory in 45 children with a reading disability, 38 children with a specific arithmetic disability, and 89 normal children, as measured by the Wide Range Achievement Test. Ss, aged 7–13 yrs, were administered a series of tasks that involved the visual or auditory presentation of rhyming and nonrhyming letters and either an oral or a written response. Younger Ss (7–8 yrs) with a reading disability did not show any difference between the recall of nonrhyming and rhyming letters, whereas normal Ss of the same age did. Older reading-disabled Ss (aged 9–23 yrs), like their normal counterparts, had significantly poorer recall of rhyming as opposed to nonrhyming letters. However, their overall levels of performance were significantly lower than normals. The same pattern was found with Ss with arithmetic disabilities for the visual presentation of stimuli. For the auditory presentation of stimuli, the performance of Ss with arithmetic disabilities resembled that of normals, except at the youngest ages. Whereas a deficiency in phonological coding may characterize younger children with learning disabilities, older children with learning disabilities appear to use a phonemic code but have a more general deficit in short-term memory. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adult age differences in recognition memory and frequency judgments for planned versus performed activities.

24 young (18.25–27.92 yrs old) and 24 elderly (62.75–80.42 yrs old) adults received a series of tasks (e.g., card sorting, arithmetic) that were planned for performance and subsequently performed with varying frequencies under intentional- and incidental-memory conditions to investigate age differences in active memory. Following the series of tasks, Ss estimated the frequencies with which task activities had been both performed and planned. Recognition-memory scores derived from performance-judgment scores revealed a significant age deficit in Ss' identification of those activities that had been performed earlier. However, memory was unaffected by intentionality at each age level. Results imply a modest age deficit for encoding rehearsal-independent, episodic events, but no age differences were found for reality monitoring: Elderly Ss were as proficient as young Ss in discriminating between planning and performance of an activity in terms of absolute frequency-judgment scores. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Activation of existing memories in anterograde amnesia.

Two principal arguments against a consolidation-block formulation of anterograde amnesia are the existence of prior-list intrusion errors and the facilitating effect of cued recall. It is suggested that both of these findings can be explained if an additional process is assumed: trace activation of already existing memories. This consolidation-block plus trace-activation view predicts that in densely amnesic patients, learning of new items or relationships is almost impossible to demonstrate and cued recall facilitates performance only on already familiar material. Trace activation was tested by comparing the performance of 6 dense anterograde amnesia patients (5 males and 1 female; 55–77 yrs old) with controls (all males, 41–72 yrs old) on 3 tasks: arbitrary paired associates (e.g., late–man), recall of disyllabic words cued with the 1st syllable (e.g., per–son), and recall of disyllabic pseudowords cued with the 1st syllable (e.g., com–da). Amnesic Ss showed substantial cued-recall effects for real words and not for pseudowords or arbitrarily paired associates. The effect of the cueing on real words was demonstrated to decay over approximately 120 min, providing some estimate of the time course of trace activation. (32 ref) ? (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Class inclusion and multiple classification in middle and old age.

Middle-aged Ss (mean = 35 yrs) performed better on the Piagetian tasks of multiple classification and class inclusion than noninstitutionalized elderly Ss (mean age = 73 yrs); institutionalized elderly Ss exhibited the poorest performance. Results suggest an actual cognitive disorganization in old age. Sex and educational differences are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neuropsychological performance and positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

Examined cognitive functions in 11 positive-symptom (mean age 36 yrs), 10 negative-symptom (mean age 33.8 yrs), and 23 mixed-symptom (mean age 31.4 yrs) schizophrenics; 15 bipolar patients (mean age 34.7 yrs); and 12 normal controls (mean age 34.8 yrs) to explore the relation between symptoms and performance. Ss were administered a neuropsychological test battery including the Purdue Pegboard, the Revised Visual Retention Test, and the Block Design subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised (WAIS—R). Group comparisons revealed generalized deficits in schizophrenics. Positive-symptom schizophrenics scored below normal Ss and negative-symptom Ss on 2 measures tapping verbal memory. Multiple regression analyses revealed that negative symptom ratings were inversely associated with performance on visual-motor tasks, whereas positive symptoms were inversely associated with verbal memory performance. Findings are not consistent with the notion that cognitive deficits are uniquely associated with negative symptoms. Instead, results suggest that there may be specific cognitive correlates of both the positive and negative symptom dimensions. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressed and nondepressed inpatients' cognitions of hypothetical events, experimental tasks, and stressful life events.

40 depressed (mean age 40 yrs) and 30 nondepressed (mean age 38 yrs 3 mo) inpatients' attributions and other cognitions were assessed for 3 types of situations: stressful life events (the Beck Depression Inventory), hypothetical events (Attributional Styles Questionnaire), and experimental (noise-escape) tasks. Depressed Ss manifested a greater depressive attributional style in response to stressful life events but did not differ from nondepressed Ss in their attributions of hypothetical events or experimental tasks. Correlations assessing cross-situational consistency of attributions were largely nonsignificant. Corrections for attenuation and analyses of trained evaluators' ratings of Ss' attributions did not substantially alter the pattern of results. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experience-dependent recovery of visuospatial functioning in older alcoholic persons.

Exposed 2 groups of alcoholic males to verbal and visuospatial paired-associate learning tasks known to be sensitive to alcohol dysfunction. Group 1, with 16 Ss (mean age 52.19 yrs), received 4 task administrations 3–4 days apart, beginning 4 days after drinking stopped. Group 2, with 14 Ss (mean age 49.79 yrs), received identical administration beginning 16 days after drinking stopped. An alternate form of the tasks was administered at the final session to assess transfer of training. Two matched nonalcoholic control groups of 12 Ss each (mean age 50.79 yrs) established normative performance on both forms of the tasks. Although the alcoholic Ss' verbal learning was unimpaired, visuospatial functioning was equally impaired initially in both alcoholic groups despite differing periods of abstinence, indicating the lack of time-dependent recovery. However, practice with the visuospatial task resulted in improved visuospatial performance and positive transfer of training not significantly different from normal Ss. It is suggested that since alcoholism treatment outcome is related to neuropsychological status, rehabilitation of cognitive functioning may improve treatment success. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Concomitant eyeblink and heart rate classical conditioning in young, middle-aged, and elderly human subjects.

Pavlovian heart rate (HR) and eyeblink (EB) conditioning were assessed in 4 groups of Ss who differed in age: young?=?19–33 yrs, young middle-aged?=?35–48 yrs, old middle-aged?=?50–63 yrs, and old?=?66–78 yrs. A 100-msec corneal airpuff was the unconditioned stimulus/stimuli (UCS) and a 600-msec tone was the CS. A nonassociative control group received explicitly unpaired tone and airpuff presentations. All Ss were studied for 2 100-trial sessions separated by approximately 7 days. An impairment in acquisition of both the EB and HR responses occurred in the old and middle-age Ss, but all age groups showed significantly greater conditioning than did the control group. Slight increases in performance resulted from a 2nd session of training. These findings suggest and age-related impairment in a general associative process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Age differences in the speed of mental rotation.

66 Ss in 4 age groups (mean ages 20.9, 32.4, 50.9, and 63.3 yrs) participated in a mental rotation task for 4 consecutive days. ANOVAs revealed significant age differences in the linear function relating median RT to degrees of rotation: Older Ss had higher intercepts and higher slopes. There were no significant age differences in error rates. Practice reduced slopes and intercepts for all groups, but it neither eliminated nor systematically reduced age differences in mental rotation performance. Mental rotation slopes and intercepts were significantly correlated with performance on the Figures subtest of the Primary Mental Abilities Test but not the Vocabulary subtest of the Nelson-Denny Reading Test. Results point toward age changes in the speed of spatial information processing that may contribute to age changes in performance on tests of spatial ability. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)