Abstract
Average attainment on the Wechsler intelligence scales shows a marked decline with age that has been seen consistently in standardisation samples from different countries and over the period 1955–1991. This is particularly true of Performance IQ, which is based on tests that involve spatial skills, but in which speed is also critical. In a series of experiments it is demonstrated that older subjects may also have difficulties on spatial tasks where timing is not important (left-right orientation on a street-plan test), but not in all tasks (e.g., adapting to prismatically induced visual distortions in a reaching task appears to be spared). Older subject are also impaired in conditional associative learning tasks, and on one version of this task given to healthy subjects aged from 20 –82 years it was possible to show age-related decline in reaction times (RTs) specific to the learning process. Overall, such RTs increased linearly at a rate of 4.5 msec/year. Slow cortical potentials (SCPs) recorded during the same task showed less topographical differentiation in older subjects between “Go” and “No-Go” conditions and across learning trials, and a positive evoked potential (ca. 800msec) to a warning stimulus seen in younger subjects in the learning phase failed to appear in older subjects. Thus it may be concluded that ageing results in decline in both spatial and temporal processes.
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© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Canavan, A.G.M., Bayer, N., Lutzenberger, W. (1993). The Decline of Spatial and Temporal Abilities with Age. In: Stelmach, G.E., Hömberg, V. (eds) Sensorimotor Impairment in the Elderly. NATO ASI Series, vol 75. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1976-4_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1976-4_5
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