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Related Experiment Videos

Age and skilled performance: contributions of working memory and processing speed.

Susan Brigman1, Katie E Cherry

  • 1Department of Psychology, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803-5501, USA.

Brain and Cognition
|December 5, 2002
PubMed
Summary

Older adults showed slower performance but improved with practice, similar to younger adults. Cognitive processing speed, not working memory, explained age-related differences in skill development.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive psychology
  • Human development
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Age impacts cognitive functions like working memory and processing speed.
  • These cognitive changes can influence the development of skilled performance.
  • Understanding these relationships is crucial for various age groups.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the interplay between age, working memory, processing speed, and skill acquisition.
  • To determine how cognitive factors mediate age-related differences in learning.
  • To examine performance changes over a three-day training period.

Main Methods:

  • Recruited younger (mean age 20.5) and older (mean age 68.9) adults.
  • Administered an alphabet arithmetic task over three days.

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  • Measured response latencies and correlated them with cognitive measures.

    • Main Results:

    • Both age groups improved performance (decreased latency) with practice.
    • Working memory and processing speed correlated with late-stage training performance.
    • Cognitive processing speed significantly mediated age differences in final performance.

    Conclusions:

    • Skill development occurs across different age groups, though at varying speeds.
    • Cognitive processing speed is a key factor in explaining age-related performance disparities in skill acquisition.
    • Working memory's role was less significant than processing speed in this context.