The Effect of Age on RuleBased Category Learning Age Caroline Differences A. Racine in Cat.pdfVIP

Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 13:411–434, 2006 Copyright © Taylor Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1382-5585/05 print; 1744-4128 online DOI: 10.1080/13825580600574377 NANCAging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, Vol. 13, No. 03, April 2006: pp. 0–0Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition1382-5585/051744-4128 The Effect of Age on Rule-Based Category Learning Age Differences in Category LearningCaroline A. Racine et al. CAROLINE A. RACINE 1, DEANNA M. BARCH 1, TODD S. BRAVER 1 AND DAVID C. NOELLE2 1Washington University, Department of Psychology, St. Louis, Missouri and 2Vanderbilt University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Nashville, Tennessee ABSTRACT An explicit, rule-based, category-learning task with abstract visual stimuli was admin- istered to 50 healthy older adults and 48 younger adults. Accuracy and reaction time (RT) were examined for the effects of age, perceptual abilities, rule memory, rule com- plexity, stimulus novelty, and response competition. Older adults performed at equiva- lent levels to younger adults when applying a simple rule, but showed performance decrements when applying a more complex rule. The age effect interacted with both stimulus novelty and response competition, and was not eliminated after controlling for basic perceptual abilities and rule memory. The authors suggest that older adults show category learning deficits in conditions that require enhanced cognitive control. These results are discussed in reference to the growing body of literature regarding age-related change in executive abilities and frontal lobe function. Growing evidence within the cognitive aging literature suggests that cogni- tive functions supported by frontal cortex show decrements with age (e.g., Anderson Craik, 2000; Moscovitch Winocur, 1995; West, 1996). In addition, studies have suggested t