Aging and Probabilistic Learning in Single- and Multiple-Cue Tasks

Abstract

The objective of the study was to examine some of the conditions under which elderly people are able to learn probabilistic inverse relationships and when this type of learning is no longer possible. Two kind of tasks were used: (a) two single-cue learning tasks with either direct or inverse relationships (the Single-Cue Probability Learning paradigm), and (b) three two-cue learning tasks, one with two direct relationships, one with a combination of direct and inverse relationships, and one with two inverse relationships (the Multiple-Cue Probability Learning paradigm). Four groups of participants were included in the study: young adults (18- to 25-year-olds), adults (40- to 50-year-olds), elderly people (65- to 74-year-olds), and very elderly people (75- to 90-year-olds). It was shown that (a) older adults are able to reject the direct relationship "default" hypothesis and select the inverse relationship hypothesis when outcome feedback contradicting the default hypothesis is given, and provided that the learning setting be a very simple one, involving only one cue; (b) some older adults are able to select the inverse relationship hypothesis provided that the learning setting be a simple one,involving only two inverse relationship cues; and (c) very few older adults are able to select the inverse relationship hypothesis when the learning setting is a complex one, involving two cues with both direct and inverse relationships with the criterion. These results led to the revision of the "gradual decrease of cognitive flexibility in older adults" hypothesis proposed by Chasseigne, Mullet, and Stewart (Acta Psychologicgrave;a, 103, 229-238, 1997).

Functional learning among children, adolescents, and young adults

“…These Wndings are consistent with those of Klahr, Fay, and Dunbar (1993) and Kuhn, Schauble, and Garcia-Mila (1992) showing that at around Wfth or sixth grade, children begin to develop eVective strategies for generating and interpreting evidence in moderately complex, multivariable contexts (see also Kuhn, Amsel, & O'Loughlin, 1988). The Wndings are also consistent with those of Chasseigne et al (1997Chasseigne et al ( , 2004 showing that, as a whole, the 18-to 25-year-olds were able to acquire much task knowledge in a direct relation-inverse relation ecology.…”

“…Interestingly, these individuals failed in the same way as did most elderly people tested in previous studies conducted on aging samples (Chasseigne et al, 1997(Chasseigne et al, , 2004Léoni, Mullet, & Chasseigne, 2002). In other words, the trouble that children experienced at learning to use an inverse relation cue in the current study parallels the trouble that elderly people (over 74 years of age) experienced at learning to use an inverse relation in structurally similar learning situations.…”

Aging and the neuroeconomics of decision making: A review

“…The results indicated that not only did the elderly score fewer points than the younger participants, but they also needed more trials to reach the learning criterion. These results fit in with behavioral data indicating that older participants are less efficient than young participants at reversal learning (Chasseigne et al, 2004;Weiler, Bellebaum, & Daum, 2008; see also Tsuchida, Kubo, & Kojima, 2002).…”

Improving students’ ability to intuitively infer resistance from magnitude of current and potential difference information: A functional learning approach

“…It also requires that a division operation needs to be applied. The present findings are consistent with functional learning studies showing that inverse relationships are much more difficult to learn than direct relationships (Brehmer 1974;Slovic 1974;Chasseigne et al 2004;Musielak et al 2006). The presence of only one inverse relationship in a task decreases the efficiency of the learning performance Chasseigne et al 2004;).…”