Biomedical subjects

J G Wiley

Publications and source records attributed to J G Wiley.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1993

Simple and complex mental subtraction: strategy choice and speed-of-processing differences in younger and older adults.

Thirty-six younger adults (10 male, 26 female; ages 18 to 38 years) and 36 older adults (14 male, 22 female; ages 61 to 80 years) completed simple and complex paper-and-pencil subtraction tests and solved a series of simple and complex computer-presented subtraction problems. For the computer task, strategies and solution times were recorded on a trial-by-trial basis. Older Ss used a developmentally more mature mix of problem-solving strategies to solve both simple and complex subtraction problems. Analyses of component scores derived from the solution times suggest that the older Ss are slower at number encoding and number production but faster at executing the borrow procedure. In contrast, groups did not appear to differ in the speed of subtraction fact retrieval. Results from a computational simulation are consistent with the interpretation that older adults' advantage for strategy choices and for the speed of executing the borrow procedure might result from more practice solving subtraction problems.

Adult↗

PubMed1992

Adult age differences in short-term memory and subsequent long-term memory for actions.

Short-term memory for actions was investigated for young adult and elderly adult subjects with the Brown-Peterson procedure at retention intervals of 0 and 15 s. The short-term memory trials were followed by the long-term recall of the prior to-be-remembered actions. The 15-s retention interval was filled either with no activity or with 1 of 3 different interfering activities. Verbal interference had little effect on short-term memory at either age level. Actions performed in the interval either by the subjects or by the experimenter produced significantly lower recall scores at each age level, with the decrement being more pronounced for the elderly than for the young subjects. The long-term memory results indicated that successful short-term recall enhanced later long-term recall, regardless of age level.

Adult↗

PubMed1991

Cognitive addition: strategy choice and speed-of-processing differences in young and elderly adults.

Sixty young and 60 elderly adults completed a pencil-and-paper addition test and solved 40 computer-presented simple addition problems. Strategies and problem solution times were recorded on a trial-by-trial basis and were classified in accordance with the distributions of associations model of strategy choices. The elderly group showed a performance advantage on the ability measure and for the developmental maturity of the mix of problem-solving strategies, but the young group showed an advantage for overall solution times. A componential analysis of the overall solution times for memory retrieval trials, however, showed no reliable age difference for rate of retrieving addition facts from long-term memory but did suggest that the elderly adults might have been slower than the younger adults for rate of encoding digits and verbally producing an answer. Overall results are interpreted within the context of the strategy choice model.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1991

Effects of short-term retrieval on adult age differences in long-term recall of actions.

In Experiment 1 young and elderly subjects either recalled or repeated after every block of 4 actions, whereas control subjects received neither interpolated short-term recall nor action repetition. On a later long-term memory test, experimental subjects, regardless of age or condition, recalled slightly more actions than control subjects. In Experiment 2 young adult and elderly subjects received 12 short-term memory trials in which 2 actions were performed on each trial, but only 1 was cued for recall after a brief retention interval filled with a distracting activity. On a later long-term memory test for the actions performed on the short-term trials, both young and elderly subjects recalled significantly more previously cued than noncued actions. The Age X Cuing Condition interaction was negligible. Prior retrieval of actions appears to enhance later recall regardless of age but seemingly only when prior retrieval requires considerable cognitive effort (as in Experiment 2).

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Adult age differences in memory for massed and distributed repeated actions.

Adult age differences in memory for actions were investigated in 2 experiments in which actions were repeated with massed or distributed spacing. In Experiment 1, subjects received a mixed series of actions, half performed once, the others twice, with repetitions either massed or distributed. Young subjects recalled more actions than did the elderly, and more distributed actions were recalled than massed actions. However, the Age X Spacing interaction was not significant. A probable inhibitory mechanism with a mixed list was avoided in Experiment 2 by use of unmixed series. Actions were performed once only, twice only in massed repetitions, or twice only in distributed repetitions. The age difference was significant, and more actions were recalled in the distributed condition than in either of the other conditions, the results of which did not differ from one another. The Age X Conditions interaction was negligible. These results imply that elderly subjects are as likely as young subjects to encode contextual information while performing actions.

Adult↗

PubMed1990

Effects of prior retrieval on adult age differences in long-term recall of activities.

The beneficial effects of prior short-term retrieval on the later long-term recall of activities were tested for both young adult and elderly adult subjects. For a series of 12 activities, short-term recall tests occurred after each block of 2, 4, or 6 activities. Relative to a control condition receiving no interpolated short-term tests, long-term recall was higher overall for the interpolated recall conditions at both age levels. However, the magnitude of the age-related deficit was unaffected by the various conditions. The greatest increment in long-term recall occurred for the groups receiving short-term tests after every four activities. The optimal benefit of prior retrieval as a mnemonic seems to come from conditions that demand some degree of cognitive effort as well as a moderately high level of successful short-term retrieval. In addition, a significant age-related deficit in recall was found for a short list of 6 activities as well as for the longer list of 12 activities.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1990

Temporal memory and content memory for actions: adult age differences in acquisition and retention.

Young adult and elderly adult subjects were tested under incidental memory conditions for recognition memory of content and temporal memory for the order of a series of actions performed in the laboratory. The tests were conducted both shortly after completion of the series and 24 hours later, with different sets of actions tested on each occasion. Recognition memory of content showed no forgetting for the young subjects, but significant forgetting for the elderly subjects. Memory for temporal information was substantially greater for the young subjects than for the elderly subjects. Both age groups showed substantial forgetting of temporal information over the 24-hour retention interval.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Adult age differences in temporal memory for cyclic actions.

Adult age differences in temporal memory for bipolar or cyclic actions were investigated in three experiments. Cyclic actions are ones that have opposite poles in regard to their effect on an object (e.g., opening and closing a purse). For such actions, the critical memory function is to remember which pole occurred last. Temporal memory was tested by having subjects judge which component of a series of bipolar actions had been performed more recently (e.g., opening or closing a purse). Recency judgments were found to be as accurate under incidental memory conditions as they were under intentional memory conditions for both young and elderly adults. The accuracy of recency judgments was less for bipolar actions performed in three cycles than for bipolar actions performed in one cycle for both young and elderly adults. Adult age differences in the accuracy of recency judgments were found to be negligible.

Adolescent↗