The Differentiative Effects of Age upon Human Learning

Ruch, Floyd L.

doi:10.1080/00221309.1934.9917838

Cited by 109 publications

(63 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Ruch 1934;Harrington and Haaland 1992;Pratt et al 1994;Howard and Howard 1997;McNay and Willingham 1998;Seidler-Dobrin and Stelmach 1998;Seidler 2006), the current data demonstrate that older adults show a normal amount of savings from prior adaptive experience. These results suggest that the underlying processes contributing to motor acquisition and transfer are distinct, and furthermore, that these processes are differentially affected by age.…”

Section: Learning and Memory 19mentioning

confidence: 62%

“…Ruch 1934;Harrington and Haaland 1992;Pratt et al 1994;Howard and Howard 1997;McNay and Willingham 1998;Seidler-Dobrin and Stelmach 1998;Seidler 2006), but, to my knowledge, no studies have tested motor transfer in older adults. Determining whether savings in the rate of learning at transfer is preserved or impaired with age can help us to more fully understand the effects of aging on skill learning.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Aging affects motor learning but not savings at transfer of learning

Seidler

2007

Learn. Mem.

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Two important components of skill learning are the learning process itself (motor acquisition) and the ability to transfer what has been learned to new task variants (motor transfer). Many studies have documented age-related declines in the ability to learn new manual motor skills. In this study, I tested whether the degree of savings at transfer of learning is similarly affected by advancing age. Young and older adults made aiming movements with a joystick to hit targets presented on a computer screen, with real-time feedback display of their movement. They adapted to three different rotations of the feedback display in a sequential fashion, with return to the normal feedback display between each. Adaptation performance was better when it was preceded by other adaptive experiences, regardless of age.

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Section: Learning and Memory 19mentioning

confidence: 62%

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confidence: 99%

Aging affects motor learning but not savings at transfer of learning

Seidler

2007

Learn. Mem.

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“…One possible explanation for the apparent discrepancy in results is that Canavan et al's task was considerably simpler than ours, and development of appropriate strategies may have placed an insufficient burden on cognitive resources to differentiate older participants from young controls. A limited number of previous studies have investigated the effect of aging on motor skill learning (Ruch 1934;Gutman 1965;Wright and Payne 1985;Howard andHoward 1989, 1992) but have used tasks in which measurement of nonstrategic learning was not possible and/or in which young participants do not spontaneously discover strategies, such as SRT.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Older participants have been shown to be impaired in several motor skill learning (i.e., increasing accuracy of movement with practice; Willingham 1998) tasks when compared with younger subjects [rotor pursuit (Ruch 1934;Gutman 1965), mirror tracking and rotary pursuit (Wright and Payne 1985)], while showing unimpaired performance on one motor skill task (Howard andHoward 1989, 1992). The task used by Howard and Howard was a serial response time (SRT) task in which participants show reduced response times to successive repetitions of a sequence although they demonstrate no awareness of the existence of such a sequence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deficit in learning of a motor skill requiring strategy, but not of perceptuomotor recalibration, with aging.

McNay¹,

Willingham²

1998

Learn. Mem.

164

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We investigated the effect of aging on different aspects of motor skill learning using two computer-presented perceptuomotor tasks. The relationship between visual and proprioceptive feedback was transformed in the first task, which was open to the formation and use of strategies. This task was designed to lead to perceptuomotor adaptation that was then measured by performance on a very similar second task that was not open to the use of strategy task. Older participants showed impaired learning of the strategic task but not of the nonstrategic task. This is in line with the suggestion that the effect of aging on learning and memory may be to reduce working memory resources.

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“…For example, several early researchers equated participants on measures of general cognition or intelligence before examining age differences in the measures of primary interest (e.g., Bromley, 1956Bromley, , 1958Bromley, , 1967Foster & Taylor, 1920;Ruch, 1934;Thorndike et al, 1928). Other early studies included multiple cognitive measures to compare the relative magnitude of age differences across measures (e.g., Bilash & Zubeck, 1960;Birren & Morrison, 1961;Foster & Taylor, 1920;Gilbert & Levee, 1971;Horn, 1967;Jones & Conrad, 1933;Schaie, 1958;Sward, 1945).…”

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confidence: 99%

Contributions of the Individual Differences Approach to Cognitive Aging

Salthouse

2016

GERONB

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Objective: To review selected research in cognitive aging incorporating an individual differences approach. Method: Three contributions of the individual differences perspective in cognitive aging are illustrated with data from the Virginia Cognitive Aging Project. Results: Research capitalizing on the variability among individuals has been used to: (a) improve sensitivity and validity of measurement of cognitive functioning, and evaluate possible age differences in the meaning of the measures; (b) investigate relations between age and individual cognitive measures in the context of other types of cognitive measures; and (c) examine the degree to which age-related influences on target measures are statistically independent of age-related influences on other cognitive measures. Discussion: Although the primary focus of much of the research in cognitive aging has been on mean differences between people of different ages, people differ in many respects besides age. A fundamental assumption of the individual differences perspective is that at least some of those differences may be informative about the nature, and causes, of the relations between age and cognitive functioning.

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The Differentiative Effects of Age upon Human Learning

Cited by 109 publications

References 4 publications

Aging affects motor learning but not savings at transfer of learning

Aging affects motor learning but not savings at transfer of learning

Deficit in learning of a motor skill requiring strategy, but not of perceptuomotor recalibration, with aging.

Contributions of the Individual Differences Approach to Cognitive Aging

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