No abstract

This experiment represents an attempt to increase one's general understanding of cognitive functioning in senescence. A comparison is made between the performance of 2 disparate age groups, with mean ages of 26.8 years and 78.1 years, on 2 kinds of perceptual tasks which earlier factorial studies have shown to reflect "the ability to fuse a perceptual field into a single percept" and "flexibility of closure." One group consisted of 16 Ss made up of doctors and nurses, and the other consisted of 16 residents in a home for the aged. They were roughly equated for intelligence. The 2 procedures were a Gestalt Completion Test, adapted by Thurstone from a technique devised by Street, and a Concealed Figures test, adapted by Thurstone from the Gottschaldt Figures Test. The older Ss were distinctly inferior on both tasks. "The over-all results were viewed as reflecting the overly loose or overly rigid cognitive functioning of the aged." 22 references.

1 HE PRESENT paper reports an investigation of the behavior of perscwis of different ages in a decision-nmking situation in which stimuli to be judged differ in ambiguity With a stimulus which allows two possible interpretations, the way an individual decides is both a function of stimulus qualities and of his characteristic modes of decision-makmg and presumably of cognitive functioning in general To explore decision-making m this situation we have chosen to compare two predictably different groups, namely older and younger personsWhile it is hoped that this study will contribute to ftuther understanding of the psychological changes which occur m aging, the experiment was conceived withm a more general interest in cognitive functioning, and decision-making in particular, as they may be a function of personality orgamzation To this end the age dimension is less important in its own right than as a possible index of different types of ego functioning As individuals age there are many and deaded changes m psychological functioning Ntimerous studies have shown a decline in intellectual ability as measured by tests of general intelligence, particularly so in those portions which require new learning, abstract reasoning, or problem solving, and less so in such tests as information and vocabulary (18) Older persons are less adept in learning,

Several investigators have demon-strated that an elevation in the level of circulating epinephrine accompanies psychological stress response and is associated with strong affective arousal.* It has also been commonly noted that a frequent consequence of epinephrine administered to man is anxiety and its physical accompaniments.4 Nevertheless, despite these suggestions of an intimate connection between epinephrine action and human anxiety, surprisingly few studies have sought to develop the relationship further. Particularly neglected has been

No abstract