Aging and everyday judgments: the impact of motivational and processing resource factors.

Full Abstract

It has been hypothesized that reductions in cognitive resources might result in older adults engaging in less systematic processing than young adults when making everyday judgments. In 2 experiments, the authors tested individuals aged from 24 to 89 years to examine the degree to which task-related information associated with more superficial versus complex processing differentially influenced performance. They also examined the hypothesis that motivational factors would moderate age differences in processing complexity. In both studies, there were no age differences in the use of simple versus complex processing. Increasing age was, however, associated with increasing selectivity in cognitive resource engagement. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Author information

Author/s: Hess, Thomas M (TM); Leclerc, Christina M (CM); Swaim, Elizabeth (E); Weatherbee, Sarah R (SR);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7650, USA. thomas_hess(-atsign-)ncsu.edu

Grants: AG05552 (Agency:NIA NIH HHS) ; R01 AG005552-12 (Agency:NIA NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

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

Journal: Psychology and aging (Psychol Aging), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Sep; vol 24 (issue 3) : pp 735-40

Dates: Created 2009/09/10; Completed 2009/10/13;

PMID: 19739930, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 10/13/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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