TitleProportional slowing and addition speed in old and young adults.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication1994
AuthorsSliwinski, M, Buschke, H, Kuslansky, G, Senior, G, Scarisbrick, D
JournalPsychol Aging
Volume9
Issue1
Pagination72-80
Date Published1994 Mar
ISSN0882-7974
KeywordsAdult, Aged, Aging, Attention, Female, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Mental Recall, Middle Aged, Problem Solving, Psychomotor Performance, Reaction Time, Reference Values
Abstract

<p>An addition and copying task was used to compare processing speed in young and old adults. Consistent with previous studies, no age differences in the problem-size effect were observed (Geary & Wiley, 1991). However, the old adults were slower overall, and an analysis of the distributions of old and young individuals indicated that the form of this slowing was proportional. These analyses also demonstrated that proportional slowing was uniform in the old adults, such that the fastest and slowest old individuals were slowed by the same factor. Because the regression of old-young mean response times can be insensitive to differential age effects, comparisons of old and young distributions are recommended to support claims regarding proportional slowing and uniformity of age effects across individuals. Finally, the results suggest that requiring Ss to initiate a new operation produced a larger age effect than requiring Ss to repeat an operation.</p>

DOI10.1037//0882-7974.9.1.72
Alternate JournalPsychol Aging
PubMed ID8185871
Grant ListAG0393 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States