Age-Related Differences in Learning Incidental, Environmental Information

Incidental task structure is consistent, potentially beneficial, information that is not necessary for successful task performance (i.e., is seemingly unrelated to the task). The authors investigated whether incidental task structure was differentially beneficial to younger and older adults. Across...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Experimental aging research 2011-01, Vol.37 (1), p.17-45
Main Authors: Caine, Kelly E., Nichols, Timothy A., Fisk, Arthur D., Rogers, Wendy A., Meyer, Beth
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult. Elderly
Age differences
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging - psychology
Biological and medical sciences
Correlation analysis
Developmental psychology
Environment
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Information
Learning
Male
Memory
Neuropsychological Tests
Older people
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Task Performance and Analysis
Visual task performance
Young Adult
Young adults
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Summary:Incidental task structure is consistent, potentially beneficial, information that is not necessary for successful task performance (i.e., is seemingly unrelated to the task). The authors investigated whether incidental task structure was differentially beneficial to younger and older adults. Across three experiments, 122 participants searched for targets among stimuli laid upon different patterns, such that certain patterns correlated with target location at varying degrees of consistency. An age-related difference was identified in the ability to learn an incidental structure under certain conditions and a strategy explanation for the difference was investigated. When older adults' were encouraged to orient at least some degree of attention toward the predictive information, learning occurred. Older adults are capable of learning incidental, environmental information but their learning was not identical to younger adults'. Younger adults showed performance benefits when provided with incidental task structure, but older adults may need to be made explicitly aware before it is useful.
ISSN:0361-073X
1096-4657
DOI:10.1080/0361073X.2010.507429