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Problem Solving and Aging: Evidence from Semantically Rich Domains

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2010

Neil Charness
Neil Charness
Affiliation:
University of Waterloo
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Abstract

Much literature supports the idea that problem-solving performance declines with aging. There are two important constraints on this generalization. The tasks that have been explored are for the most part novel ones. Literature is cited that argues that older people take longer to show improvement on such tasks. A second problem is that young control groups are more highly practiced at cognitive tasks generally. Thus age effects are confounded with skill effects. Recent work in semantically rich domains (those requiring a large knowledge base for skilled performance) show minimal effects of aging on problem-solving.

Résumé

L'idée, selon laquelle la performance en solution de problème décroit avec le vieillissement, obtient un large support dans la littérature. Il existe deux contraintes importantes à cette généralisation. Les tâches qui ont été étudiées sont pour la plupart de nouvelles tâches. Certaines recherches sont citées qui indiquent que les personnes âgées s'améliorent plus lentement dans ce type de tâches. Un deuxième problème est que les jeunes du groupe-contrôle ont beaucoup plus de pratique avec les tâches cognitives en général. Alors, les effets attribuables à l'âge sont confondus avec les effets d'habilité. Les travaux récents sur des domaines sémantiquement riches (ceux qui requièrent une large base de connaissances pour la performance habile) démontrent des effets minimaux du vieillessement sur la solution de problèmes.

Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue canadienne du vieillissement , Volume 1 , Issue 1-2 , September 1982 , pp. 21 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Association on Gerontology 1982

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