Characterization of Age Differences in Error Types in a Multitrial Spatial Learning Task

• Published in: Educational gerontology Vol. 39; no. 12; pp. 915 - 924
• Main Author: Krueger, Lacy E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 01-12-2013; Routledge
• Subjects: Adults; Age Differences; Classification; Cognitive Ability; Error Patterns; Older Adults; Prediction; Proximity; Recall (Psychology); Spatial Ability; Task Analysis; Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale; Wechsler Memory Scale
• ISSN: 0360-1277; 1521-0472
• DOI: 10.1080/03601277.2013.767654

Although increased age is associated with greater errors in spatial memory tasks, it is unclear if there are age differences in error types. To investigate this, 334 participants (ages 22-88) completed a task in which they remembered object locations across multiple study-test trials. Far and close error types were categorized based on the spatial proximity of recalled objects to their actual location. Younger adults showed a greater difference in the proportion of close and far errors, and middle-aged adults showed this pattern to a lesser extent. However, older adults committed close and far errors at an equal rate. Results revealed that all age groups reduced their far errors across trials, and task complexity similarly affected older and younger adults' error-type rates. Study time did not appear to predict error types. Overall, these results suggest that increased age is associated with more far errors, but that a reduction in these error types can occur through repeated learning trials.