Long-term retention of skilled visual search: Do young adults retain more than old adults?

Young and old Ss received extensive consistent-mapping visual search practice (3,000 trials). The Ss returned to the laboratory following a 1 6-mo retention interval. Retention of skilled visual search was assessed using the trained stimuli (assessment of retention of stimulus-specific learning) and using new stimuli (assessment of retention of task-specific learning). All Ss, regardless of age group, demonstrated impressive retention. However, age-related retention differences favoring the young were observed when retention of stimulus-specific learning was assessed. No age-related retention differences were observed when task-specific learning was assessed. The data suggest that age-related retention capabilities depend on the type of learning assessed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory self-efficacy and performance differences in young and old adults: The effect of mnemonic training.

We evaluated the hypothesis that mnemonic training would result in higher memory self-efficacy and better memory performance in young and old adults. Forty-eight young adults (17- to 19-year-olds) and 45 old adults (60- to 78-year-olds) received either training in the method of loci or no training and were given either performance feedback or no feedback on a serial-word recall task. Ss were tested at pre- and posttraining and were asked to rate their self-efficacy strength (SEST) and self-efficacy level (SEL) at each test session. Young adults recalled more than old adults and had higher self-efficacy scores. Training with feedback improved recall performance in both age groups but failed to increase SEST or SEL. When SEL scores were used to derive a measure of prediction inaccuracy, no age differences were observed. We conclude that efficacy expectations and attributions for memory performance may influence mnemonic training outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluation of comprehension in young and old adults.

An error-detection paradigm was used to examine the ability of young (mean age?=?22.56 years) and old (mean age?=?71.53 years) adults of varying educational levels to comprehend texts. Error detection was measured by both performance (underlining the textual problem, inconsistent sentences) and verbal-report (rating) measures. Results for the performance measure indicated that young and old adults were equally able to detect textual inconsistencies; however, better educated adults detected more inconsistencies than less educated adults. Although there were no age differences in number of detected inconsistencies, younger adults were more likely than old adults to overestimate reported comprehension when they failed to detect inconsistencies. Such a mismatch between subjective and objective comprehension, termed illusion of knowing by Glenberg, Wilkinson, and Epstein (1982), was also more common among better educated adults. Further directions for research on adult comprehension-monitoring processes are discussed. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mucin antigen expression in gastric carcinomas of young and old adults

The striking differences in the histological features of gastric cancers in young and old adults have been thought to be related to differences in the biological behavior of these cancers. Recently, a new grading system (Goseki's classification) showed that the prognosis of the patient is particularly related to the mucin content of the carcinoma. In this study, we examined differences in mucin antigen expression in cancers from young and old adults and whether antigen expression is related to the clinical outcome. The expression of two mucin core proteins (DF3 antigen [MUC1 gene product] and MRP antigen [MUC2 gene product] and a mucin-type carbohydrate antigen [sialosyl-Tn; STn]) was examined immunohistochemically in gastric cancers from 69 young adults (30 to 39 years of age) and 110 old adults (80 to 89 years of age). The incidence rates of the three histological types (tubular adenocarcinoma, poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, and signet-ring cell carcinoma) were different in the young and old adults. However, among the mucin antigens examined, only DF3 showed significantly higher frequency of expression in the old adults, and the difference was seen only in tubular adenocarcinomas (young, 43%; old, 68%) and poorly differentiated adenocarcinomas (young, 19%; old, 49%). In these two histological types, there was no difference in the frequency of MRP or STn expression between the young and old adults, although the old adults showed a high incidence of intestinal metaplasia that was positive for both antigens. Signet-ring cell carcinomas showed no significant difference in expression rates of the three antigens in young and old adults, but there were significantly higher expression rates in young patients for both MRP (young, 67%; old, 65%) and STn (young, 71%; old, 57%) and a lower rate of DF3 expression (young, 0%; old, 14%). In both young and old adults, the patients with DF3-positive carcinomas showed significantly poorer survival than those without DF3 expression, whereas there was not significant difference in the survival of the patient groups with positive and negative MRP or STn reactivity. In conclusion, the expression of DF3 was influenced by the age of patients and was related to the outcome. In contrast, MRP and STn expression was related more to the histological pattern of the tumor than to the age of the patient and did not correlate with the outcome.     

Spatial performance is more sensitive to ethanol than nonspatial performance regardless of cue proximity

In rodents, ethanol produces a greater impact on the ability to perform spatial reference memory tasks than nonspatial reference memory tasks. Such evidence may reflect a selective disruption in the use of previously acquired spatial information. However, a nonmnemonic explanation has yet to be ruled out Tasks used to study ethanol's effects on spatial memory commonly require subjects to utilize distal, or extramaze, cues to respond correctly. In contrast, many previously used nonspatial tasks could be solved using cues located on the maze itself. Because ethanol has been shown to disrupt sensory processing, it is possible that previously observed differences in the effects of ethanol on spatial and nonspatial performance were actually due to differences in the proximity of relevant cues in the spatial and nonspatial tasks and not to a selective disruption in spatial memory. The present study compares the effects of ethanol on the performance of spatial and nonspatial reference memory tasks that require subjects to discriminate among extramaze cues for correct responding. Subjects were trained while sober to navigate to a goal arm on a 12-arm maze. In the spatial task, the goal arm was defined by its location with respect to a number of extramaze cues. In the nonspatial task, the goal arm was defined by the presence of a single extramaze cue located directly beyond the end of the arm. Subjects were tested under 1 of 4 doses of ethanol (0.0, 0.7, 1.4, and 2.1 g/kg). Performance on the nonspatial task was more resistant to the effects of ethanol than performance on the spatial task. The results suggest that differences in the effects of ethanol on spatial and nonspatial performance are not due to differences in the proximity of relevant cues in previously used spatial and nonspatial tasks.     

Prose processing in young and old adults: Research on expertise and compensation.

For decades, psychologists have administered a variety of cognitive tasks to adults of all ages and backgrounds. One goal in this research was to answer such global cognitive developmental questions as: Is there inevitable, generalized decline in cognitive performance with advancing age? This article describes the rationale and results of a series of studies investigating the extent to which older adults can develop or maintain such levels of performance in a particular complex cognitive skill, i.e., reading and remembering prose passages. Given that many of the molecular components of these skills decline with advancing age, further improvement or maintenance may occur through a process of compensation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peceived control of life regrets: Good for young and bad for old adults.

Age differences in the associations among intensity of regret, control attributions, and intrusive thoughts were investigated (N = 122, age range = 20-87 years). Given that the opportunities to overcome regrettable behavior decline with age, older adults' attributions of low internal control were expected to serve self-protective functions and facilitate deactivation of regret. In younger adults, by contrast, high levels of internal-control attributions might facilitate active change of regrettable behavior, resulting in low intensities of regret. The results showed that internal-control attributions were related to high intensity of regret and intrusive thoughts in older adults. Among younger adults, however, internal-control attributions were associated with low intensity of regret and low levels of intrusive thoughts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implicit processing in the cued recall of young and old adults.

Reports 2 cued recall experiments in which younger and older Ss studied target words varying in number of preexperimental associates. In Exp 1, targets were studied in either the absence or presence of meaning-related context cues, with recall always prompted by the cues. In the absence of context, words with smaller sets of associates were easier to recall than those with larger sets, but this effect was reduced for older Ss. The presence of a study context cue facilitated recall and eliminated the effect of associative set size for both ages. In Exp 2, targets were studied and tested in the presence of unrelated words. In this situation, words with smaller sets of associates were less likely to be recalled than words with larger sets; again the effect was reduced for older Ss. The results are interpreted as an age decrement in processing implicitly activated information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting job performance: Not much more than g..

The roles of general cognitive ability (g) and specific abilities or knowledge (s) were investigated as predictors of work sample job performance criteria in 7 jobs for US Air Force enlistees. Both g and s (the interaction of general ability and experience) were defined by scores on the first and subsequent principal components of the enlistment selection and classification test (the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery). Multiple regression analyses, when corrected for range restriction, revealed that g was the best predictor of all criteria and that s added a statistically significant but practically small amount to predictive efficiency. These results are consistent with those of previous studies, most notably Army Project A (J. J. McHenry et al; see record 1990-27146-001). The study also extends the findings to other jobs and uses traditionally more acceptable estimates of g, application of effective sample size in cross-validation estimation, and new performance criteria. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

There's more to the picture than meets the eye: young children's difficulty understanding biased interpretation

5 experiments investigated children's understanding that expectations based on prior experience may influence a person's interpretation of ambiguous visual information. In Experiment 1, 4- and 5-year-olds were asked to infer a puppet's interpretation of a small, ambiguous portion of a line drawing after the puppet had been led to have an erroneous expectation about the drawing's identity. Children of both ages failed to ascribe to the puppet an interpretation consistent with the puppet's expectation. Instead, children attributed complete knowledge of the drawing to the puppet. In Experiment 2, the task was modified to reduce memory demands, but 4- and 5-year-olds continued to overlook the puppet's prior expectations when asked to infer the puppet's interpretation of an ambiguous scene. 6-year-olds responded correctly. In Experiment 3, 4- and 5-year-olds correctly reported that an observer who saw a restricted view would not know what was in the drawing, but children did not realize that the observer's interpretation might be mistaken. Experiments 4 and 5 explored the possibility that children's errors reflect difficulty inhibiting their own knowledge when responding. The results are taken as evidence that understanding of interpretation begins at approximately age 6 years.     

Aging and the psychological refractory period: Task-coordination strategies in young and old adults.

The apparently deleterious effect of aging on dual-task performance is well established, but there is little agreement about the source of this effect. Studies of the psychological refractory period (PRP) indicate that young adults can flexibly control dual-task performance through task-coordination strategies. Thus, the performance of older adults might differ from young adults because older adults use different task-coordination strategies. To test this hypothesis, the executive-process interactive control (EPIC) architecture was applied to quantify the reaction time data from two PRP experiments conducted with young (age 18–26) and older (age 60–70) adults. The results show that participants' ability to coordinate the processing of two tasks did not decline with age. However, dual-task time costs were greater in the older adults. Three sources for this increase were found: generalized slowing, process-specific slowing, and the use of more cautious task-coordination strategies by the older adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Power and affordances: When the situation has more power over powerful than powerless individuals.

Six studies examined how power affects responses to situational affordances. Participants were assigned to a powerful or a powerless condition and were exposed to various situations that afford different classes of behavior. Study 1 examined behavior intentions for weekdays and weekends. Studies 2 and 3 focused on responses to imaginary social and work situations. Study 4 examined planned behavior for winter and summer days. Finally, Studies 5 and 6 examined behavior and attention in the presence of situation-relevant and irrelevant information. Consistently across these studies, powerful individuals acted more in situation-consistent ways, and less in situation-inconsistent ways, compared with powerless individuals. These findings are interpreted as a result of the greater tendency for powerful individuals to process information selectively in line with the primary factors that drive cognition, such as affordances. One consequence of these findings is that powerful individuals change behavior across situations more than powerless individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Another hamster paradox: more males carry pups and fewer kill and cannibalize young than do females

The response of virgin male and female golden hamsters to young was studied. In contrast to most species, males are more likely to carry pups than are females. All males carried pups, but approximately 50% of females cannibalized the young. The females that did not cannibalize the pups carried them with less hesitation and after shorter latencies than did the males. The response of females to young was not correlated with the aggressiveness displayed toward adult males during separate tests. Tests with gonadectomized females indicated that the maintenance of pup-killing behavior is not dependent on concurrent gonadal hormones. Progesterone injections did not significantly increase pup killing in males that had previously carried young. Speculations on the adaptive significance of the male and female hamster's response to pups are presented.     

Imitation in young children: When who gets copied is more important than what gets copied.

Unlike other animals, human children will copy all of an adult's goal-directed actions, including ones that are clearly unnecessary for achieving the demonstrated goal. Here we highlight how social affiliation is key to this species-specific behavior. Preschoolers watched 2 adults retrieve a toy from a novel apparatus. One adult included irrelevant actions in her demonstration; the other only used actions causally related to opening the apparatus. After both adults took turns demonstrating, 1 left the test room, and the remaining adult gave the apparatus to the child. Children reproduced the irrelevant actions only when given the apparatus by the adult who had demonstrated them, even though the departed adult's actions emphasized how unnecessary these redundant actions were. Our results highlight the specialized skills for participating in cultural groups that have evolved in humans and provide insight into why finding such high fidelity copying in other animals has proven elusive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metamemorial predictors of memory performance in young and older adults.

The relationship between aspects of knowledge about memory and immediate and delayed recall on prose and word-list tasks was examined. Ss were 100 young and 100 older adults. Vocabulary ability was screened. Memory knowledge was assessed by the Metamemory in Adulthood (MIA) scale and the Short Inventory of Memory Experiences (SIME). Capacity and change measures of the MIA correlated with most dimensions of the SIME for both age groups. The anxiety measure of the MIA correlated with SIME measures only for the young. Regression analyses showed that strategy (MIA) predicted performance only for young adults, change (MIA) predicted performance only for older adults, and capacity (MIA) predicted performance for both age groups. Metamemory variables accounted for equivalent amounts of variance in both prose and word-list tasks, although there was an indication that prediction was slightly better for prose. Future researchers need to address the apparent increase in affect-related predictors of memory performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training for attentional control in dual task settings: A comparison of young and old adults.

The authors examined whether the learning and performance of dual tasks by young and old adults could be enhanced through training. Adults were trained with either a fixed-priority or variable-priority training strategy on a monitoring task and an alphabet-arithmetic task and then transferred to a scheduling and a paired-associates running memory task. Participants in the variable priority condition learned the monitoring and alphabet-arithmetic tasks more quickly and achieved a higher level of mastery on these tasks than did those in the fixed-priority condition. Moreover, participants trained with the variable priority technique showed evidence of the development of automatic processing and a more rapid rate of learning and higher level of mastery of the transfer tasks than did the fixed-priority participants. These results are discussed in terms of the mechanisms that underlie learning and performance of dual tasks and with respect to potential applications. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Primary central nervous system lymphoma: age and performance status are more important than treatment modality

PURPOSE: To assess prognostic factors and treatment modalities of patients with primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) in terms of response rates, patterns of failure and overall survival. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Sixty-two patients presenting with PCNSL between 1982 and 1994 at Peter MacCallum Cancer Institute with no evidence of human immunodeficiency virus infection were included in the study. Their median age was 60 years; World Health Organisation (WHO) performance status was > or = 2 in 85%. All patients were planned to receive whole brain irradiation; 7 also received spinal irradiation. The median planned dose to the target volume was 50.4 Gy. Twenty patients were planned to receive chemotherapy as well. Patients were followed up to June 20, 1995, giving a median follow-up for 14 surviving patients of 5.4 years, range 0.3 to 10.2 years. RESULTS: The clinical response rate to treatment was 77% [95% confidence interval (CI) 65 to 87%]. The estimated median overall survival was 20.6 months (CI 12.4 to 33.4 months). On univariate analysis male gender, age <60 years, WHO performance status < or = 1, treatment to the target volume > or = 45 Gy, and treatment with additional chemotherapy, were associated with a significantly better overall survival (p < 0.05). On multivariate analysis only age and performance status remained significant prognostic variables. Relapse involved the central nervous system or cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in all patients with known sites of relapse except three who had ocular relapse only. There was a low incidence of relapse in the initial brain site (23% of known cases) and a high incidence (50%) of CSF/spinal cord relapse. Of 48 deaths, 15 were related to initial or subsequent treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Patient outcome is strongly influenced by age and performance status. Studies suggesting better survival for patients treated with chemoradiation may reflect patient selection rather than treatment variables. Optimal management remains to be defined. The high CSF/spinal relapse rate deserves particular attention.