Meaningfulness and problem-solving performance by younger and older adults

Younger and older adults solved reasoning problems in either abstract or meaningful form. Contrary to expectation, older adults did not differ on the two versions, but younger adults were aided by meaningfulness. Results of a second task showed no age differences in the time to produce associations to problem elements or in the number of associations. There were differences in the quality of associations, and association quality was significantly related to performance on the reasoning problems for older adults.