Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Vol 50, Issue 4 P212-P218, Copyright © 1995 by The Gerontological Society of America
Age differences in the formation of equivalence classes
KM Wilson and MA Milan
Psychology Department, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston 61920, USA.
In order to investigate the relationship between stimulus equivalence class
formation and age differences, two groups of elderly (ages 62-81) and young
(ages 19-22) adult men and women mastered a series of simple and
conditional discriminations. Subsequently, they were administered a test
for the emergence of equivalence relations. There was a significant age
difference in the emergence of equivalence relations, with the elderly
subjects less likely to demonstrate equivalence relations. Measures of
response latencies evidenced a general slowing of behavior for the elderly
group across tasks. There were no gender or Age by Gender interactions.
Possible explanations for the age differences are discussed.
