Adult Cognition: An Experimental Psychology of Human Aging PDF
Preview Adult Cognition: An Experimental Psychology of Human Aging
Springer Series in Cognitive Development Series Editor Charles J. Brainerd Springer Series in Cognitive Development Series Editor: Charles J. Brainerd Children's Logical and Mathematical Cognition: Progress in Cognitive Development Research Charles 1. Brainerd (Ed.) Verbal Processes in Children: Progress in Cognitive Development Research Charles 1. Brainerd/Michael Pressley (Eds.) Adult Cognition: An Experimental Psychology of Human Aging Timothy A. Salthouse Recent Advances in Cognitive Developmental Theory: Progress in Cognitive Development Research Charles 1. Brainerd (Ed.) Timothy A. Salthouse Adult Cognition An Experimental Psychology of Human Aging Springer-Verlag New York Heidelberg Berlin Timothy A. SaIthouse Department of Psychology University of Missouri-Columbia Columbia, Missouri 65211 U.S.A. Series Editor Charles J. Brainerd Department of Psychology University of Western Ontario London, Ontario Canada N6A 5C2 With 32 Figures Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Salthouse, Timothy A. Adult cognition. (Springer series in cognitive development) Bibliography: p. Includes index. I. Aging-Psychological aspects. 2. Cognition. I. Title. II. Series. BF724.55.A35S24 1982 155.67 82-10584 ©1982 by Springer-Verlag New York Inc. Softcover reprint of the hardcover I st edition 1982 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form without written permission from Springer-Verlag, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010, U.S.A. The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, etc., in this publication, even if the former are not especially identified, is not to be taken as a sign that such names, as understood by the Trade Marks and Merchandise Marks Act, may accordingly be used freely by anyone. ISBN-13: 978-1-4613-9486-0 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4613-9484-6 DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4613-9484-6 98765432 Series Preface For some time now, the study of cognitive development has been far and away the most active discipline within developmental psychology. Although there would be much disagreement as to the exact proportion of papers published in developmental journals that could be considered cognitive, 50% seems like a conservative estimate. Hence, a series of scholarly books to be devoted to work in cognitive development is especially appropriate at this time. The Springer Series in Cognitive Development contains two basic types of books, namely, edited collections of original chapters by several authors, and original volumes written by one author or a small group of authors. The flagship for the Springer Series is a serial publication of the "advances" type, carrying the subtitle Progress in Cognitive Development Research. Volumes in the Progress sequence are strongly thematic, in that each is limited to some well-defined domain of cognitive-developmental research (e.g., logical and mathematical development, semantic development). All Progress volumes are edited collections. Editors of such books, upon consultation with the Series Editor, may elect to have their works published either as contributions to the Progress sequence or as separate volumes. All books written by one author or a small group of authors will be published as separate volumes within the series. A fairly broad definition of cognitive development is being used in the selection of books for this series. The classic topics of concept development, children's thinking and reasoning, the development of learning, language development, and memory development will, of course, be included. So, VI Series Preface however, will newer areas such as social-cognitive development, educational applications, formal modeling, and philosophical implications of cognitive developmental theory. Although it is anticipated that most books in the series will be empirical in orientation, theoretical and philosophical works are also welcome. With books of the latter sort, heterogeneity of theoretical perspective is encouraged, and no attempt will be made to foster some specific theoretical perspective at the expense of others (e.g., Piagetian versus behavioral or behavioral versus information processing). c. J. Brainerd Preface This monograph, if successful and not simply ignored, will likely be rather controversial. Perhaps more than in most other fields, researchers in the psychology of aging seem torn in a conflict between scientific and humanistic perspectives. As a consequence, debates concerning the validity and relevance of empirical results often become quite heated and emotional. By attempting to present a strictly scientific viewpoint on the cognitive capabilities of older adults this book will probably strike some humanistically oriented gerontol ogists and psychologists as being one-sided and overly negativistic. There are also likely to be disagreements within the scientific community concerning interpretations of the research literature since in many cases they contradict commonly accepted (but, I believe, poorly substantiated) beliefs. No guarantee can be provided that my interpretations are any more correct, but the mere existence of rival interpretations should serve to stimulate research that can lead to the resolution of some of these issues. Adult Cognition will probably also be controversial because serious ques tions are raised concerning the ultimate usefulness of the research strategy sometimes described as "replicating the Journal of Experimental Psychology with an older sample." This approach has obviously led to a vast accumulation of facts about age differences in cognitive processes, but there is reason to be skeptical about whether any genuine advance in knowledge about fundamental aging mechanisms has resulted. Another factor that may contribute to controversy is the rather small size of the monograph. This has imposed limitations on the breadth and depth of coverage, and consequently it is likely that some critics will complain that topic X has been short-changed in its VIII Preface coverage. However, since there would be little agreement as to which topic is topic X, it is impossible to avoid criticism of this type in a relatively short monograph such as this one. And finally, readers used to a traditional organization of topics beginning with simple processes and concluding with complex processes may find the present reductionistic chapter sequence somewhat peculiar. The current organization was adopted because of a philosophical belief that it is useful to understand, or at least describe, what needs to be explained (the complex processes) before examining the mecha nisms that might be invoked in the explanations (the simple processes). While Adult Cognition may be controversial for the reasons discussed above, I would like to thank a number of reviewers who did their best to minimize a different type of controversy by pointing out my errors of communication, fact, interpretation, and logic. The students in my Cognitive Psychology course made valuable comments on the entire manuscript, and Chuck Brainerd, Don Kausler, Chuck Krauskopf, Marion Perlmutter, and Ben Somberg offered suggestions on various segments of the book. I would also like to acknowledge my appreciation of the valuable support provided by the staff of the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences during my stay there as a Summer Institute Participant in 1980. Special thanks are due those from whom I have learned the most: Jack Botwinick, Bob Gottsdanker, Dick Pew, Ben Somberg, John Stern, Martha Storandt, and Dan Weintraub. Columbia, Missouri Timothy A. Salthouse May, 1982 Contents Chapter 1 Age and Its Research Significance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 1 Professional Achievement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 3 Industrial Work Performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 9 Automobile Driving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. II An Important Cautionary Note ........................ , 13 Functional Age ..................................... , 14 Summary ............. " ... , ., ., ................... 16 Chapter 2 Methodological Issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 19 Traditional Research Designs .......................... , 20 Environmental Change Effects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 25 A Research Design Sensitive to Environmental Change .... , 27 Internal and External Validity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 31 Problems with Selection of Research Participants . . . . . . . . .. 32 Attempts to Artificially "Equate" Age Groups. . . . . . . . . . .. 33 Health ............................................. 35 Concluding with an Optimistic Perspective ........... . . .. 36 Summary ... " ..................................... 37 x Contents Chapter 3 Theoretical Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 39 Difficulties of Theorizing in Adult Development ........... 40 Replacing the Age Variable. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 42 Dimensions for Theory Classification .................... 43 Two Illustrative Theories .............................. 46 Forewarning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Age Defined by Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 49 Summary .......................................... 49 Chapter 4 Psychometric Intelligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 51 Definition of Intelligence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 53 Analysis of Component Abilities ........................ 55 Characterizing the Differential Decline .................. 68 Issues of Controversy ................................. 70 Theoretical Evaluation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 80 Summary .......................................... 81 Chapter 5 Decision Making and Problem Solving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 83 Creativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 84 Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 86 Organizational Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 88 Ability to Make Logical Deductions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 90 Ability to Discriminate Relevant from Irrelevant Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 91 Concrete and Abstract Thinking ........................ 93 Ability to Proceed Systematically towards a Problem Solution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 94 Miscellaneous Factors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 95 Cognitive Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 96 The Critical Role of Experience .... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 98 Theoretical Evaluation ................................ 99 Summary ... : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 101 Chapter 6 Comprehension and Use of Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 103 Comprehension. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 104 Structural Characteristics of Semantic Memory. . . . . . . . . .. 108 Rates of Information Activation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. III Metamemory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 114 Remote Memory. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 117 Theoretical Evaluation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 120 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 122
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