Perceptual Sensitivity and Conceptual Coordination in Children and Younger and Older Adults

Abstract

This study was designed to explore the effects of perceptual salience on performance in problems requiring the coordination of information. Groups of children, younger adults, and older adults were administered a salience-assessment task to determine each individual’s perceptual sensitivity to each of three dimensions. Half of the subjects in each age group were given a coordination problem with their two most salient dimensions relevant. The remaining half were given problems with their two least salient dimensions relevant. For each of the age groups, those problems containing the most salient information were solved faster and more accurately than problems containing the least salient information. The results demonstrate that perceptual sensitivity continues to influence problem solving from childhood through late adulthood.

Problem Solving, Concept Learning, and Aging.

“…The effects of age and at least one other variable in concept-identification performance were reported in three studies: (a) Brinley et al (1974) varied the memory requirements; (b) Hoyer et al (1979) varied the amount of irrelevant information; and (c) West et al (1978) investigated the degree of perceptual salience of the stimuli in the to-be-learned concept. The concept-learning literature based on college students indicates that all of these variables can influence conceptlearning difficulty.…”

“…Five papers involving concept-type problem solving and aging have appeared since 1974 (Hayslip & Sterns, 1979;Hoyer, Rebok, & Sved, 1979;Mack & Carlson, 1978;Rogers, Keyes, & Fuller, 1976;West, Odom, & Aschkenasy, 1978). In addition, two papers that appeared in 1974 but were not reviewed by Rabbitt (1977) are also included (Brinley, Jovick, & McLaughlin, 1974;Offenbach, 1974).…”

Effects of Perceptual Training on the Salience of Information in a Recall Problem

“…In a variety of problem-solving tasks (e.g., Brown 1970;Cunningham & Odom 1978;Smiley 1973;West, Odom, & Aschkenasy 1978), the salience of the in-formation has been shown to affect the probability that the information will be conceptually evaluated. In a variety of problem-solving tasks (e.g., Brown 1970;Cunningham & Odom 1978;Smiley 1973;West, Odom, & Aschkenasy 1978), the salience of the in-formation has been shown to affect the probability that the information will be conceptually evaluated.…”