[Planning ability of older and younger adults]

This investigation was aimed at the effects of ageing on planning. The investigation was carried out with young adults, middle-aged adults and elderly. Because of a suggested resemblance of problems described in elderly with impairments in patients with prefrontal cortical damage, and because the prefrontal cortex is important for planning, a test specifically sensitive to planning deficits in left prefrontal patients, the Tower of London test, was administered. On this test, the elderly solved significantly less problems in the allotted time than the two younger groups. However, the elderly did not show the same type of problem as that described in prefrontal patients. Such patients perform significantly worse on first attempts (problems correctly solved in one attempt). On this variable the elderly in our study equalled the younger adults in performance. However, they less often succeeded when the first attempt was not correct. To check whether this result could be explained simply by decreased mental and psychomotor speed and visuo-spatial function, regression functions between age and Tower score were computed, partialing out scores on tests of these more elementary abilities. A significant effect of age remained, which we tentatively interpret as an effect on planning ability.