No abstract

College students and elderly subjects made self- and other-descriptiveness judgments about trait adjectives that were age-specific descriptors. The young adults favored endorsement of traits that had been judged descriptive of young adults, compared to traits that had been judged descriptive of elderly adults. However, elderly adults endorsed an equivalent number of young and elderly traits. This indicates that content specificity with regard to age is more a characteristic of young adults than elderly people, with elderly adults being "schematic" for descriptors of both young and older people. Nonetheless, for the elderly subjects, the speed of self-reference decisions was slower for the young traits relative to the elderly traits, as if the young traits were somewhat less accessible. Although elderly adults recalled fewer adjectives overall than young adults, their pattern of recall was similar for self- versus other-referenced items. Thus, it seem unlikely that age differences in spontaneous self-referencing account for the general age deficit in retention.

Developmental studies have demonstrated the utility of select executive function (EF) tasks for the early diagnosis of specific learning-related problems (e.g., Snow, 1998). However, previous data demonstrating schooling effects on EF measures suggests potential pitfalls in clinical interpretation. In the present study three common EF measures, (Wisconsin Card Sort, Thurstone Word Fluency, and a mazes task) in addition to a VIQ estimating task, were administered to a cross-section of 115 children aged 7 to 9. Using a school-entrance cut-off design the unique contributions of formal schooling versus age-related changes to performance on the EF measures were examined. Schooling effects were both task and age-dependent supporting the conclusion that the proper use of EF measures with children in this age range depends upon consideration of factors beyond that usually depicted in net-effect models.

Subjects selected on the basis of test anxiety scores made a judgement about each face in a series of slides. These orienting tasks involved either abstract traits (e.g. dependability) or physical features (e.g. weight), and decisions were made relative to either an absolute criterion or self-reference. A subsequent recognition test revealed superior performance by low-anxiety subjects and by subjects who evaluated abstract features during study, but there were no depth by anxiety interactions. The reference point for the decision had little effect overall, but the anxiety deficit was more apparent when the absolute reference point was involved.

No abstract