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Biomedical subjects

D F Hultsch

Publications and source records attributed to D F Hultsch.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1992

Intraindividual change in text recall of the elderly.

Patterns of change and variability in text recall performance were assessed in seven elderly women by testing them weekly for up to 2 years. Results showed markedly different patterns of intraindividual change in gist recall performance for different participants. The two women whose performance declined were characterized by deteriorating physical health. Texts having female protagonists yielded superior recall performance. There was significant intraindividual variability after adjustment for text effects, which may indicate that weekly fluctuations in psychological states of the participants influenced their memory performance.

Age Factors↗
PubMed1992

Short-term longitudinal change in cognitive performance in later life.

Changes in mean performance on memory, information processing, and intellectual ability tasks over a 3-year period were examined. The sample consisted of 328 community-dwelling men and women (from an original sample of 484 individuals) aged 55-86 years. Ss completed tasks yielding measures of verbal processing time, working memory, implicit memory, vocabulary, verbal fluency, world knowledge, reading comprehension, word recall, and text recall. The results showed significant average decline on working memory, verbal fluency, and world knowledge. There were also interactions for 2 processing time measures and working memory, showing greater decline in the earlier-born cohort group than in the later-born cohort group. A step-down analysis revealed that covarying declines in other variables, including processing time, did not eliminate significant declines in working memory, verbal fluency, and world knowledge.

Adult↗
PubMed1991

Adult age differences in direct and indirect tests of memory.

Indirect tests of memory assess the influence of recent experience on task performance without requiring awareness of remembering. Evidence concerning whether there are reliable age differences on such indicators of implicit memory has been inconsistent. This inconsistency may be related either to the low power of previous studies, or the contamination of indirect measures by conscious memory retrieval strategies. In a statistically powerful test of this question, indirect and direct tests of memory were administered to 584 adults from three age groups (19-36 years, 55-69 years, 70-86 years). Significant age differences in favor of the young were found on the indirect test as well as direct tests, suggesting that there are small but reliable age differences in implicit memory. Correlational analyses examining the relationship of memory performance to other cognitive variables indicated that the indirect test was supported by different components than the direct tests.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Relationships between metamemory, memory predictions, and memory task performance in adults.

A cross-sectional sample of adults recalled categorized word lists and narrative texts. Subjects gave performance predictions before each of 3 recall trials for each task. Older subjects had poorer memory performance and also predicted lower performance levels than did younger subjects. The LISREL models suggested (a) direct effects of memory self-efficacy (MSE) on initial predictions; (b) upgrading of prediction-performance correlations across trials, determined by direct effects of performance on subsequent predictions; (c) significant effects of a higher order verbal memory factor on MSE; and (d) an independent relationship of text recall ability to initial text recall performance predictions. These results lend support to the theoretical treatment of predictions as task-specific MSE judgments.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Ability correlates of memory performance in adulthood and aging.

The predictive relationships between an array of cognitive process and intellectual ability variables and text- and word-recall performance were examined. A sample of 584 men and women from 3 age groups (19-36, 55-69, and 70-86 years) completed a battery of 23 tasks marking 2 latent criterion variables and 10 latent predictor variables. The results indicated that (a) individual differences in process and ability variables predict performance on text and word recall, accounting for approximately half of the variance; (b) the pattern of predictors is quite similar for text and word recall; (c) age-related differences in text and word recall can be substantially accounted for by individual differences in constituent abilities, particularly indicators of verbal speed and working memory; and (d) there is some evidence to suggest that the pattern of ability-performance relationships varies across age, but such interactions appear to be relatively small.

Adult↗
PubMed1976

Attitudes toward aging as a function of in-service training and practitioner age.

Age differences in attitudes toward aging were investigated as a function of a 3-hour training program with 322 women (18-74 years) from various geriatric health care and social service contexts. Using a quasi-experimental pre- and posttest design, sites were randomly divided into initial experimental and control groups, with all control participants receiving training following the research program. Results indicated few instances of unfavorable attitudes toward aging in any age group, with younger women evidencing less cynicism toward aging, less social distance from the aged, and slightly less stereotyping. Training appeared to result in less cynicism, stronger endorsements of family and public responsibility, and slightly greater anxiety. No Age X Pretest/Posttest interactions were found. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for service provider-client interaction, the correspondence of attitudinal and behavioral change, and appropriate instruments for assessing program impact.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

On the differentiation of memory beliefs from memory knowledge: the factor structure of the Metamemory in Adulthood Scale.

This study was designed to test the hypothesis that there are multiple factors of metamemory present in the Metamemory in Adulthood (MIA) questionnaire. Data on seven MIA scales from six separate studies on memory/metamemory relationships (total N = 750) were combined to yield two half-samples for cross-validation purposes. The samples were partitioned into young, middle-aged, and old groups. A multiple group confirmatory factor analysis was then conducted on the data, using the first half sample to develop a model and the second half sample to validate it. Although the models did not fully cross-validate, both analyses indicated that there are at least two higher-order factors in the MIA. The first involves beliefs about self-efficacy in using memory. The second factor combines knowledge about memory and affect concerning memory (e.g., achievement motivation). The analyses also indicated that the factor loadings for the second factor, tentatively labelled Knowledge, were invariant across the three age groups, but that there were age differences in the Self-Efficacy Beliefs factor loadings. The differences were localized to age-related increases in the loadings for the MIA Change and Locus scales. The two factor solution has potential for resolving conflicting results in the literature regarding age differences in both metamemory and metamemory/memory performance relationships.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Attitude instrument analysis: an examination of factor consistency across two samples.

The factor analytic model of the practitioner-oriented opinions about people (OAP) was tested with a population of gerontological practitioners (N =558). A confirmatory factor analysis was performed to ascertain the degree-of-fit between these data and the published OAP factor model. After results supported the hypothesis that the two samples differed, a second factor analysis was designed to yield estimates of communalities by a least squares multiple regression technique. This analysis eliminated nine items not warranting inclusion in the instrument, redistributed the factors, and brought out a completely new factor. Finally, to test the hypothesis that attitudes toward aging and the aged are uncorrelated, a third analysis was performed in which the six scales of the oblique solution were refactored. The resulting higher order dimensions tended to support this hypothesis.

Aged↗