Aging, task complexity, and efficiency modes: the influence of working memory involvement on age differences in response times for verbal and visuospatial tasks.

Full Abstract

We examined the information-processing functions (response-time x load) of younger and older adults for two verbal and one visuo-spatial task; each task was implemented in a baseline and a high-complexity condition. Heightened complexity transformed the baseline functions in either an additive or a multiplicative fashion. The processing efficiency of older adults was defined as the old-young ratio of the slopes of the load functions. Three levels of efficiency could be distinguished. The first level, with an age-related slowing factor of about 1.2, consisted of low-complexity verbal processing and additive-complexity verbal processing. The second level, associated with a slowing factor of about 1.6, consisted of a mixture of verbal-high-multiplicative-complexity processing and visuo-spatial-low-complexity processing. The third level, with a slowing factor of about 4, consisted of visuo-spatial processing of high multiplicative complexity. The results go against any common factor theory of aging. Instead, they suggest that a shift from a higher to a lower mode of efficiency is triggered by a greater degree of working memory involvement.

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Author information

Author/s: Verhaeghen, Paul (P); Cerella, John (J); Basak, Chandramallika (C);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York 13244-2340, USA. pverhaeg(-atsign-)psych.syr.edu

Grants: AG-16201 (Agency:NIA NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Neuropsychology, development, and cognition. Section B, Aging, neuropsychology and cognition (Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Jun; vol 13 (issue 2) : pp 254-80

Dates: Created 2006/06/29; Completed 2006/09/08; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 16807201, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aging - psychology
Attention
Discrimination Learning
Efficiency
Female
Humans
Imagination
Male

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