Showing papers by "Thomas Hess published in 1986"

Aging effects on prototype abstraction and concept identification.

Abstract: The hypotheses that prototype abstraction is an automatic process unaffected by aging and that different aging effects associated with different types of concept learning can be accounted for by differential effortful memory process involvement were examined. Young and old adults were compared on tests of prototype abstraction and concept identification, and relationships between performance measures derived from these tasks and backward memory span were assessed. In the abstraction task, both age groups used prototypical organizational processes to structure incoming information, but age differences did exist in the specificity of the information used in prototype construction. Concept identification performance, however, declined with age, and the poorer performance of the old adults was related to their poorer memory skills. The results suggest that the different aging effects associated with different tests of conceptual skills are dependent upon the nature of the underlying processes.

Specific exemplar retention and prototype abstraction in young and old adults.

Abstract: The effects of age differences in retention of information about specific concept members on the ability to abstract central tendency information were examined. Young and older adults were presented with a series of visual patterns that were organized around a prototype. They were then presented with these same patterns plus a set of new patterns varying in prototype similarity in a recognition test. It was found that young adults retained more information about specific acquisition set exemplars, which resulted in slightly different recognition responses for new patterns. However, the recognition behavior of both young and older adults appeared to be governed by the same rules. It is suggested that the organization of conceptual information does not change with age, but the poorer retention of specific item information in older adults may result in a less complete representation.

Adult age differences in memory for explicit and implicit sentence information.

Abstract: Adult age differences in the processing of implicit sentence information were examined by testing recognition memory for stated and implied information. The effects of organization on such processing also were examined by presenting test sentences in a structured (story) or unstructured (unrelated sentences) format. No age differences were observed in memory for implied instruments-suggesting that aging has little effect on the processing and storage of such implicational information. In addition, structure had little effect on memory for implied information but interacted with age in determining memory for explicity stated instruments: Young adults remembered more explicit information in the structured condition.