The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences Advance Access originally published online on August 13, 2009
The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 2009 64B(5):608-611; doi:10.1093/geronb/gbp063
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Long-term Maintenance of Retest Learning in Young Old and Oldest Old Adults
1 Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
2 Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, Belgium
3 Center for Lifespan Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
Address correspondence to Lixia Yang, PhD, Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3, Canada. Email: lixiay{at}ryerson.ca
 |
Abstract |
|---|
This study examined the maintenance of retest learning benefits in young old and oldest old adults over an 8-month period in 3 cognitive abilities: reasoning, perceptual-motor speed, and visual attention. Twenty-four young old (aged 70–79 years, M = 74.2) and 23 oldest old adults (aged 80–90 years, M = 83.6) who participated in a previously published study (Yang, L., Krampe, R. T., & Baltes, P. B. [2006]. Basic forms of cognitive plasticity extended into the oldest-old: Retest learning, age, and cognitive functioning. Psychology and Aging, 21, 372–378) returned after an 8-month delay to complete 2 follow-up retest sessions. The results demonstrated that both young old and oldest old groups maintained about 50% of the original retest learning benefits. This extends the earlier findings of substantial long-term cognitive training maintenance in young old adults to a context of retest learning with oldest old adults, and thus portrays a positive message for cognitive plasticity of the oldest old.
Key Words: Retest learning • Long-term maintenance • Oldest old • Young old • Reasoning • Perceptual-motor speed • Visual attention
Received November 22, 2008; Accepted July 12, 2009