University of Queensland 59 elderly Ss and 58 young persons were shown 20 drawings of common objects at the rate of 1 per 2 sec. The process was repeated until a criterion of 80% recall was achieved. Ss then believed their task complete, but were retested after 4 weeks for both recall and recognition. The elderly group proved significantly inferior to the control group in both recall and recognition, and found recall more difficult than the young Ss. No correlation was found between delayed recall or delayed recognition on the one hand and the time actually spent in original learning or the number of exposures of the stimulus material on the other. Delayed memory (both in recall and recognition) correlated significantly with the original level of immediate recall achieved in satisfying the criterion.
The maximum rate of information acceptance (MIA) of approximately 185 elderly Ss (60-90 years) was assessed for 3 perceptual tasks of graded difficulty. Results were compared with those of a control group of 42 young adults. MIA was found to be lower in elderly persons than in young adults, and to decline consistently through the seventh, eighth and ninth decades. The rate of decline was greater with perceptual material of an unfamiliar nature, and where the information has to be accepted from more than 1 source simultaneously. Although the average performance of elderly Ss was consistently lower than that of younger persons, the range of scores was such that, except in the most difficult situations, some elderly Ss achieved results well ahead of the younger average. MIA calculated in this manner was closely correlated with the WAIS scaled score totals, and with the sub-test totals, especially those in the Performance section. The effectiveness of much, if not all, cognitive function may be limited by rate of information acceptance.
In this investigation, the basic rates of visual perception and of perceptual integration were studied in 30 psychotic patients and in a normal control group of 28. Marked differences were found. In unitary perception the psychotics required twice as long as the control group, and in integration of perceptual elements the performances of the two groups were convincingly divergent, appearing to conform to logarithmic equations of different orders. It is suggested that the phenomenon of deterioration recognized in the field of mental testing may be more closely associated with decrease in rate of perceptual integration than with decrease in capacity to memorize and infer.
A series of experiments was conducted in which Ss (university students in groups of approximately 30) made personally controlled judgments of the vertical or horizontal under non-stressed and stressed conditions, Stress was produced mainly by auditory and muscular stimulation, applied in some instances asymmetrically and in others symmetrically. Stress produced by visual, gustatory and emotional stimulation was also employed. Judgments of the vertical were made by both visual and non-visual (tactile-kinaesthetic) methods. The results indicate (a) that judgments made without extraneous stress differ significantly from those made under stressed conditions; (b) that the subjective vertical of each individual tends to be displaced in the same direction by stresses applied to either side of the body or in a symmetrical manner; (c) that this effect occurs when the vision used for judgment is monocular as well as binocular; (d) that there is significant correlation between the vectormagnitudes of deflections associated with stresses of different kinds.
Two experimental groups of elderly Ss (60-69 years n = 99, and 70-89 years n = 65) were each separately matched with young adult Ss with respect to WAIS scaled score totals. In both of the experimental groups the scores in the Information, Comprehension and Vocabulary subtests were found to be significantly higher than in the young control group, but the Performance subtest scores were (with one minor exception) all significantly higher in the control. Similarities, Arithmetic and Digit Span exhibited no significant differenas. This trend is shown to be independent of the total score. This pattern of subtest scores is related to the findings of other studies, and also to the distribution of roles in the majority of cultural structures.
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