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Age differences in mental scanning of locomotor maps
Tina Iachini1, Carla Poderico, Gennaro Ruggiero
1Department of Psychology, Second University of Naples, Italy. santa.iachini@unina2.it
Purpose:
To investigate whether the metric quality of mental spatial representations of the environment changes with aging, by means of mental scanning of locomotor space.
Method:
Twenty young adults (age 21.1-30.8) and 20 old adults (age 60.4-76.4) were submitted to a battery of psychometric tests to assess the effects of aging on general cognitive functions and specific visuo-spatial abilities, and to determine which cognitive factors correlated with scanning performance. The mental scanning task followed. Participants firstly had to learn a path comprising six positions by walking and observing these; secondly, they had to use mental imagery to scan from a first to a second position, according to different distances.
Results:
Aging reduces the validity of the metric information incorporated by mental spatial representations. Attentional and working memory resources, ability to manipulate spatial information and a general factor of abstract visuo-spatial reasoning strongly correlated with scanning performance. Finally, aging seemed to have a selective effect on cognitive functioning.
Conclusions:
Age differences emerge when demanding storage and processing of information are simultaneously required, as predicted by the Limited Resources view of aged cognition.
