Methods of enhancing concept attainment in older adults

Practice with informative feedback and active training were found to be effective in enhancing concept attainment in older adults. Fifty male and 50 female Ss, aged 60-79 years, were given a pretest and posttest, each involving conjunctive concept-identification problems. The practice-plus-informative-feedback groups (right-wrong, nothing-wrong, and right-nothing) discovered the concepts faster than the active training group. The last group outperformed a control group. These results, in contrast to previous studies, demonstrate that the elderly are capable of solving complex cognitive tasks, like younger Ss, by using their own self-generated strategies and currently available information. This is consistent with recent theory that emphasizes experiential factors as the basis for performance deficit in cognitive tasks for older adults.