Formal reasoning in late adulthood: The role of semantic content and metacognitive strategy

Two experiments explored the availability of deductive or formal reasoning in late adulthood. In Experiment 1, fifty young (M=19.0 years) and 50 elderly adults (M=81.0 years) were assessed using adaptations of Wason's selection task and rated task content for familiarity, affect, and agreement. In Experiment 2, 100 young (M=21.0 years) and 100 elderly adults (M=81.0 years) were similarly assessed, with half of the subjects in each age group receiving a metacognitive strategy to facilitate reasoning. Results from Experiment 1 indicated equivalent reasoning among the groups on problems employed in earlier developmental research. In contrast, problems constructed to entail affect resulted in poorer performance by older adults. In Experiment 2, both young and older adults who used the metacognitive strategy reasoned equally acrossall problems. In both experiments, familiarity and agreement did not play a role in deductive reasoning performance, but affect seemed to be an interfering factor. Results are discussed in terms of competence-procedure and stability-decrement models of adult cognitive development.     

Exploring collaborative problem solving in adulthood

Collaborative problem solving occurs in situations in which two or more individuals cooperate in appraising, representing, and solving a variety of cognitive tasks. Collaborative groups are the context for much everyday cognitive activity in adulthood. Collaboration has been explored as a means through which older adults may maintain high levels of performance, perhaps compensating for individual-level cognitive and neurological decline. This study explored the effects of collaboration (group size) and adult age on solving both fixed- and unrestricted-alternatives 20 Questions tasks. Younger (M=24.3 years) and older (M=67.9 years) adults were randomly assigned to one of three homogeneous group size conditions: individuals, dyads, and tetrads. Results indicated some dissociation between individual-level performance (poorer for older adults) and collaborative performance (better for older adults). For the fixed-alternatives task, older adults produced more of the relatively inefficient hypothesis-scanning questions than did younger adults. In contrast, older collaborative groups produced more of the efficient constraint-seeking questions than hhpothesis-scanning questions, and an amount equivalent to that of younger adults. Overall performance for the difficult unrestricted-alternatives task was less efficient for both younger and older adults. The roles of task type, group characteristics, and adult age are discussed.     

Causal attributions and strategy use in relation to memory performance differences in younger and older adults

A metacognitive hypothesis to explain age differences in adult memory is explored here–that younger and older adults differ in beliefs about memory and strategic processing. The motivational beliefs that adults make for their own memory performances were examined across tests of recall, recognition, face–name learning, and appointment-keeping. Forty-eight older and 48 younger community-living adults were required to report the factors they believed influenced their performance and the memory strategies used for each task. A final questionnaire required subjects to rank order the importance of a list of causal factors. There were significantly more younger adults as compared to older adults who attributed performance to controllable factors (i.e. strategy use), although age differences in beliefs on a more familiar memory task were smaller than on other tasks. Moreover, within age groups, attributions to controllable factors were associated with increased memory performance compared to when memory was attributed to uncontrollable factors (i.e. ability, age). Believing that memory is uncontrollable may undermine the efficient use of effort in cognition, consistent with current metacognitive theory.     

Metacognition and proofreading: the roles of aging,motivation, and interest

The current study examined younger and older adults’ error detection accuracy, prediction calibration, and postdiction calibration on a proofreading task, to determine if age-related differences would be present in this type of common error detection task. Participants were given text passages, and were first asked to predict the percentage of errors they would detect in the passage. They then read the passage and circled errors (which varied in complexity and locality), and made postdictions regarding their performance, before repeating this with another passage and answering a comprehension test of both passages. There were no age-related differences in error detection accuracy, text comprehension, or metacognitive calibration, though participants in both age groups were overconfident overall in their metacognitive judgments. Both groups gave similar ratings of motivation to complete the task. The older adults rated the passages as more interesting than younger adults did, although this level of interest did not appear to influence error-detection performance. The age equivalence in both proofreading ability and calibration suggests that the ability to proofread text passages and the associated metacognitive monitoring used in judging one’s own performance are maintained in aging. These age-related similarities persisted when younger adults completed the proofreading tasks on a computer screen, rather than with paper and pencil. The findings provide novel insights regarding the influence that cognitive aging may have on metacognitive accuracy and text processing in an everyday task.     

小学三年级数学学优生与学困生解决比较问题的差异

运用实验法和临床访谈法研究了数学学优生与学困生在解决比较问题时的差异及元认知对解题成绩的影响。被试为40名小学三年级学生。比较问题分为一致问题和不一致问题。元认知包括元认知知识和元认知监控技能。结果表明：(1)学优生与学困生解决比较问题的成绩差异显著,学优生在一致问题和不一致问题上的解题成绩均优于学困生。这种差异与其解题时所运用的表征策略有关。(2)学生在解决比较问题中出现的主要错误为转换错误,在不一致问题中出现的错误多于一致问题中出现的错误。(3)学优生与学困生在元认知知识和监控技能上均有显著差异,元认知监控技能对解决比较问题的成绩有显著预测作用。     

Age-related similarities and differences in monitoring spatial cognition

Spatial cognitive performance is impaired in later adulthood but it is unclear whether the metacognitive processes involved in monitoring spatial cognitive performance are also compromised. Inaccurate monitoring could affect whether people choose to engage in tasks that require spatial thinking and also the strategies they use in spatial domains such as navigation. The current experiment examined potential age differences in monitoring spatial cognitive performance in a variety of spatial domains including visual–spatial working memory, spatial orientation, spatial visualization, navigation, and place learning. Younger and older adults completed a 2D mental rotation test, 3D mental rotation test, paper folding test, spatial memory span test, two virtual navigation tasks, and a cognitive mapping test. Participants also made metacognitive judgments of performance (confidence judgments, judgments of learning, or navigation time estimates) on each trial for all spatial tasks. Preference for allocentric or egocentric navigation strategies was also measured. Overall, performance was poorer and confidence in performance was lower for older adults than younger adults. In most spatial domains, the absolute and relative accuracy of metacognitive judgments was equivalent for both age groups. However, age differences in monitoring accuracy (specifically relative accuracy) emerged in spatial tasks involving navigation. Confidence in navigating for a target location also mediated age differences in allocentric navigation strategy use. These findings suggest that with the possible exception of navigation monitoring, spatial cognition may be spared from age-related decline even though spatial cognition itself is impaired in older age.     

The effectiveness of updating metacognitive knowledge in the elderly: evidence from metamnemonic judgments of word frequency

Accurate metacognitive knowledge is vital for optimal performance in self-regulated learning. Yet older adults have deficiencies in implementing effective learning strategies and knowledge updating and consequently may not learn as effectively from task experience as younger adults. Here we assess the ability of older adults to update metacognitive knowledge about the effects of word frequency on recognition. Young adults have been shown to correct their misconceptions through experience with the task, but the greater difficulty older adults have with knowledge updating makes it unclear whether task experience will be sufficient for older adults. The performance of older adults in this experiment qualitatively replicates the results of a comparison group of younger subjects, indicating that both groups are able to correct their metacognitive knowledge through task experience. Older adults seem to possess more effective and flexible metacognition than sometimes suggested.     

Everyday problem solving in adulthood and old age

We examined everyday problem solving in adulthood and compared it with traditional measures of cognitive abilities. In the first phase of the research, we describe the construction of an inventory to assess problem solving in situations that adults might encounter in everyday life and examine raters' judgments of effective responses to the problems. In the second phase, adults (N = 126) between the ages of 20 and 78 were administered the inventory and tests of verbal and abstract problem-solving abilities. Results indicated modest but significant positive correlations between performance on the inventory and traditional ability tests. The examination of age differences revealed that performance on the Everyday Problem-Solving Inventory and verbal ability test increased with age, whereas performance on a traditional problem-solving test declined after middle age. In addition, education was unrelated to everyday problem solving, highly related to verbal ability, and moderately related to traditional problem solving. Results are discussed in relation to pluralistic conceptions of intelligence and theories of adult intellectual development.     

Flexible strategy use: A characteristic of gifted problem solving

The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between flexible strategic thinking and problem solving performance. In the first experiment, gifted, average, and poor problem solvers performed a number of tasks which were designed to provoke rigidity. The results indicated that the average and poor performance groups did not differ in the number of answers indicating response and perceptual set. On the other hand, creative and intelligent students showed fewer rigid answers than the other two groups. In the second experiment, gifted and average students were asked to think aloud while solving different problems with open and closed solution situations. The thinking aloud protocols were analyzed by classifying the statements into different strategy types. Gifted students used a variety of strategies when solving problems, as well as different strategies for different problem types. No such differences were observed with the average problem solvers. The results of both experiments demonstrated consistent evidence for the role of flexible strategic thinking in gifted problem solving, as well as less direct evidence of the importance of metacognitive knowledge.     

11~14岁超常儿童与普通儿童问题解决能力的发展比较

以北京市某中学和某小学11~14岁之间294名学生为被试, 其中超常儿童131人, 普通儿童163人。采用推箱子任务, 结合横向比较和纵向追踪数据, 从认知能力、元认知能力和认知效率三个维度来考察超常儿童与普通儿童问题解决能力的发展差异。结果发现超常儿童在问题解决能力的三个维度上均优于普通儿童, 两类儿童问题解决能力的发展模式不一致：超常儿童的问题解决能力发展先快后慢, 快速发展期在11~12岁半之间; 普通儿童的问题解决能力发展先慢后快, 快速发展期在12岁半~14岁之间。超常儿童与普通儿童的问题解决能力差异随年龄增大逐渐减小。     

Causal attributions from adolescence through adulthood

Attributional reasoning for events varying on level of informational ambiguity and context (relationship, achievement) were examined from adolescence through older adulthood. Participants rated the degree to which a cause of an event was a function of the primary character, situation, or a combination of these; wrote essays assessing underlying reasons for attributions; and responded to ego level, attributional style, and intolerance for ambiguity questionnaires. Older age groups made more interactive (relativistic) attributional ratings than did younger age groups for ambiguous events. Compared to adult and middle-aged adults, older women demonstrated a drop in dialectical attributional reasoning as assessed by the essays. Ego level, tolerance for ambiguity, and verbal ability predicted more dialectical attributional reasoning above and beyond the effects of age.     

Age-Related Differences in Metamemory Accuracy among the Elderly: The Effect of Declining Inhibitory Function

To explore the age-related difference in metamemory accuracy during older adulthood, we measured the metamemory calibration and resolution of older participants. In Study 1, we divided the participants into four groups by age: 60–64, 65–69, 70–74, and above 75 years. We used young adults as a contrast group. The results revealed the inconsistency of age-related differences in calibration and resolution. The young adults had higher calibration in global prediction than the four groups of older adults before the study, whereas there were no differences among the four elderly groups. There were no differences in resolution between the 60- to 64-year, 65- to 69-year and young adult groups, but these three groups had higher resolution than the 70- to 74-year and above 75-year groups for item-by-item prediction. In Study 2, we measured the older participants’ inhibitory function to explore whether impaired inhibitory function led to a decline in metacognitive ability in the elderly. The results showed that the inhibition function was highly correlated with the accuracy of judgments of learning (JOL) and can predict the accuracy of JOL to a certain extent.     

Metacognition for strategy selection during arithmetic problem-solving in young and older adults

We examined participants’ strategy choices and metacognitive judgments during arithmetic problem-solving. Metacognitive judgments were collected either prospectively or retrospectively. We tested whether metacognitive judgments are related to strategy choices on the current problems and on the immediately following problems, and age-related differences in relations between metacognition and strategy choices. Data showed that both young and older adults were able to make accurate retrospective, but not prospective, judgments. Moreover, the accuracy of retrospective judgments was comparable in young and older adults when participants had to select and execute the better strategy. Metacognitive accuracy was even higher in older adults when participants had to only select the better strategy. Finally, low-confidence judgments on current items were more frequently followed by better strategy selection on immediately succeeding items than high-confidence judgments in both young and older adults. Implications of these findings to further our understanding of age-related differences and similarities in adults’ metacognitive monitoring and metacognitive regulation for strategy selection in the context of arithmetic problem solving are discussed.     

Role of age in relation between two kinds of abilities and performance in acquisition of new motor skill

Better understanding of age-related differences in skilled performance was the focus of analyses of cognitive-performance scores-relationships in acquisition of a new motor skill. 31 younger adults and 33 older adults were tested on both a cognitive and a psychomotor test. Then, they were asked to learn a juggling task over 12 sessions of 20 min. Analysis indicated age-related differences in the rate of learning. Acquisition by the younger adult group was significantly faster than that by the older adult group. This difference was also reflected in the relationship of cognition and performance for the two age groups. Motor execution for the older adults seemed to require more psychomotor ability, especially at the end of the learning sessions, and was dependent on cognitive control. This trend is consistent with the perspective that cognitive predictors of performance are related to age.     

Age group differences and longitudinal changes in approach–avoidance sensitivity: Findings from an 8-year longitudinal study

An increasing number of studies point to normative changes in personality occurring during adulthood. We examined age group differences and longitudinal changes in approach–avoidance sensitivities across adulthood using a population-based sample of younger, midlife, and older adults (N = 7468) assessed on three occasions over an 8 year interval. Younger adults reported higher approach sensitivity (assessed using BAS-Drive and BAS-Reward subscales) relative to midlife and older adults. Approach sensitivity tended to decline between Times 1 and 3 for all age groups. Cross-sectional age differences were not evident for avoidance sensitivity at Time 1 (assessed using the BIS); however there was evidence for different patterns of change in avoidance over time across the age groups. Results are discussed in the context of lifespan developmental perspectives on self-regulation of emotion and behaviour.     

Developmental differences in children's labeling of movement

Children's encoding of information, specifically, the correct use and application of labels, is one factor frequently used to account for developmental differences in verbal learning. Labels may also be used in connection with remembering positional movements. The purpose of this study was to evaluate developmental differences in the effects of labels upon remembering movements. In addition, the study evaluated whether better or poorer labeling strategies would increase or decrease performance in the age groups studied. Subjects consisted of kindergarten children (N=27), fifth grade children (N=27), and adults (N=27) randomly assigned within each age level to one of three groups: subjective label, irrelevant label, and relevant label. Subjects were tested on a two-dimensional positioning task allowing estimates of radial, location, and distance errors. Results indicated that relevant labels (clock face) improved performance for remembering positions within all age conditions. Of major interest was the finding that relevant labels increased performance of the kindergarten children to the approximate level of the irrelevant label (animals) group for fifth graders. The same finding was evident for the fifth graders with the relevant label group approximating performance of adults forced to use a less sophisticated strategy (irrelevant label, i.e., animals). This finding suggests that a significant portion of the differences between younger and older children and adult performance is due to the processing deficit of poor encoding strategies used by children.     

The role of vocabulary ability during visual word recognition in younger and older adults

The role that vocabulary ability plays in adult age differences in word recognition was investigated. In Experiment 1, 44 older adults (ages 61-93 years) were compared with 44 younger adults (ages 18-39 years) on a standard lexical-decision task, with ambiguous words, unambiguous words, and pseudowords serving as stimuli. In Experiment 1, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R; D. Wechsler, 1981) vocabulary performance was uncontrolled across the younger and older adults, and the older adults had higher WAIS-R scores. There was no Group x Stimulus interaction. In Experiment 2, the data from the same 44 older adults were compared with data from a new sample of 44 younger adults (ages 18-44). Both groups were then matched on WAIS-R performance. Results revealed a significant Group x Stimulus interaction. Reaction time differences between the younger and older groups on the ambiguous words and unambiguous words were identical. The differences in reaction times for words and pseudowords were greater in the older adults. The importance of vocabulary ability during word recognition and lexical processing is discussed.     

Age-Related Differences in the Transition from Adolescence to Adulthood and Links with Family Relationships

This study examined differences on major aspects of attaining adult status in the transition from adolescence into young adulthood. The attainment of developmental tasks and the quality of parent–child relationships were compared across adolescence and young adulthood. In addition, the extent to which relationships with parents are related to the attainment of young adulthood developmental tasks was also investigated. The study was conducted on 169 Israeli adolescents, early young adults, and late young adults. Results showed that developmental tasks are attained at different stages, and that the consolidation of adult status is achieved closer to the end of the third decade of life. Relationships with parents were found to be more positive following the transition from adolescence to early young adulthood. Adaptation of young adults was explained by the quality of relationships with parents and especially with fathers.     

Adult age differences in elaborations produced during prose recall

This study focused on adult age differences in the characteristics and quantity of elaborations produced during a prose recall task. Young (M = 24.3 years) and older (M = 67.9 years) adults were tested in 3 same-age, same-gender group size conditions: individual, dyad, and tetrad. Elaborations, which are statements not contained in the text but not inconsistent with it, were divided into 2 major categories. Denotative elaborations included statements that were closely related to the text and filled in gaps in the stories. These elaborations were equally produced by young and older adults and were significantly correlated with gist recall performance. Annotative elaborations were evaluative and interpretive comments. These statements were more frequently produced by older adults but were not correlated with recall performance. Young and older adults had different patterns of annotative elaboration production across group size conditions.     

Negations in syllogistic reasoning: Evidence for a heuristic–analytic conflict

Research indicates that cognitive age differences can be influenced by metacognitive factors. This research has generally focused on simple memory tasks. Age differences in working memory (WM) performance are pronounced, but are typically attributed to basic cognitive deficits rather than metacognitive factors. However, WM performance can be influenced by strategic behaviour that might be driven by metacognitive monitoring. In the current project, we attempted to connect these lines of research by examining age differences in metacognitive WM monitoring and strategies. In Experiment 1, younger and older adult participants completed a computerized operation span task in conditions that either required or did not require monitoring reports. Participants in the monitoring condition predicted and postdicted global performance for each block and rated their responses following each trial within a block. In Experiment 2, participants also reported their trial-level strategic approach. In contrast to the age equivalence typically found for simple memory monitoring, results demonstrated age differences in WM monitoring accuracy. Overall age differences in strategy use were not found, but using effective strategies benefited older adults' performance more than younger adults'. Furthermore, age-related differences in the WM task appear to be mediated by the accuracy of performance monitoring.