The primary purpose of the present investigation was to evaluate the effects of exercise on simple cognitive performance and on psychological well-being in persons over fifty years of age. A secondary purpose was to assess the relationship between a set of subject variables and drop-out from fitness programs. Twenty-nine new and 37 active volunteers from the St. John's 3F fitness club for persons over fifty years of age served as subjects. Initial assessment on fitness and psychological measures was carried out within three weeks of the start/restart of the program. A second testing took place six months later. Significant pre/post differences were obtained on measures of reaction time, flexibility, balance, extra program activity, and digit symbol performance. Group by pre/post effects also reached statistical significance for psychological well-being. These results suggest that the beneficial effects of exercise are not limited to physical fitness variables, but may extend to cognitive and personality processes.
1. BENDPJR, L. Psycho athic behavior disorders in children. 2: Handbook o Correctional Psychology. New York: 6hib sophical Library 1947. !Discriminative value and pattern of the Wechsler-Bellevue Scale in the examination of delinquent Negro boys. Edw. Peychol. Meas., 6, 1445, pp. 71-85, Zamt h of Wechaler-BeueVlse Type T&% An Attempt To LXseriminate And Diagnose Psycliopathic Personality T y eg &dent a penal institution. unputlded ~o ctoral Thesis, New York Umersity, 1949. 4. b m , J. A. A Psychometric P w of The Addeseent P &path. Unpubhhed Doctom1 Thesis %ew York University, 1943. 5. L I N D~, R. k. A Formdstion of psychopathic personality. Peychiatw, 7, 1944, pp. 59-63. 2. FBB~T~LIN, J. 3. Gu~vma, M. 8. The E x p m d A 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. LINDER, R. M. The Rorschach test and the *of& of ps chopat J . crim. PeychopatOl., 5, M A~o~R , 8. Cultural and Racial V & t i m in Patterns o InteUed. New Yo&: tion No. 875, 1943. SCEAFER, R. The Clinical Applicatioar of Psychdogioal Tests. New.York: Inkmational Universities Press,' 1948, pp. 840-341. ~~W T E K~R , C. The performance of piryohopaths on the Wechsler-Bellevue test. Proceeding~ of the Iowa Aa&my of Schce, 51. 1944, pp. 397-400. Teachers College 8 ontributions to Eduos-VAN VORST, R. "Abstract." Psychol. B a . , 41,1943, pp. 583. WECHSLER, D. The M e a s u r m t of A d d InteUigm. Baltimore: Willisma and WiUriqs, 1944, Third Edition.
Geretein (1) in an article in the Journal of Consulting Psychology in 1949 suggests a relationship between the use of language and the underlying cognitive process involved. She proposes placing more emphasis on this relationship instead of merely determining whether or not the subject has given the correct definition of a word on a vocabulary test. That is, one should, in addition to determining whether the definition is correct or incorrect, attempt to differentiate the type of definition which is considered correct.Reichard, Schneider and Rappaport (#) using the Goldstein-Weigl (3) color-sorting test as an instrument for investigating concept formation in children arrived at the conclusion that there exist three basic methods for forming concepts: (a) the concretistic, (b) the functional and (c) the conceptual.Gerstein on the basis of the Reichard, Schneider and Rappaport study feels that the same three methods of concept formation which were exhibited in that study to solve a performance problem may also be used in classifying the definitional levels of responses to verbal stimuli. She suggests the following three classifications which parallel the aforementioned three: (a) the concretistic or descriptive method which is considered to be at the lowest level of verbalized definitions (the most primitive level), e.g., "an apple is red" or "a diamond is very hard and glitters, shines and sparkles"; (b) the functional or usage method, a more complex level and considered to be at the next higher level of verbalized definitions, e.g., "a coat is something you wear to keep warm" or "a microscope is used to make observations of minute objects"; and (c) the categorical or conceptual or abstract method, the most complex method and considered to be at the highest level of verbalized definitions, e.g., "wood is a fuel" or "a bicycle is a means of transportation".
IT HAS been suggested that the "rigidity"shown by the Einstellung method, as exemplified hi Luchins' (11,12,13,14) water-jar problems, is a "general response characteristic that pervades all aspects of an individual's behavior" (3, p. 165). If this were so, a person who behaves rigidly when trying to solve water-jar problems should also behave rigidly when trying to solve other types of problems, and thus his adjustment to his environment would be affected. Rigid and nonrigid people should differ, then, in the kind of personality traits they develop. Rigidity, defined as the resistance of the Einstellung (set to respond in a given way) to change when a more adequate answer can be given than the one brought about by the Einstellung, was studied in the present experiment by means of a test of similarities of words, in order to investigate rigidity hi solving problems of a verbal, rather than numerical, nature. Ten personality traits, general activity, restraint, ascendance, sociability, emotional stability, objectivity, friendliness, thoughtfulness, personal relations, and masculinity, were studied by means of the Guilford-Zimmerman Temperament Survey, a standardized personality test (6).Results from previous studies have not given a clear-cut answer to the problem of the generality of rigidity. In the first place, varying, even contradictory, concepts, such as fixation of response (5), lack of variability (15), perseveration (1, 2), degree of impermeability of boundaries (8, 9, 10), as well as Einstellung, have been equated with rigidity. Some individuals working hi this area, for example, Goldstein (5), Werner (20,21), and Cattell and Tiner (2), also distinguish more than one kind of rigidity.In general, the various definitions of rigidity seem to be of two types, those that conceive of rigidity as evidenced by repetition within one. situation (1,12,14,16) and those that consider it to be a basic trait underlying many or all kinds of behavior (3,9,15,17). As a
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