Age effects on category rule learning

Abstract

A growing literature suggests that separate learning systems may be differently affected by cognitive aging. We conducted two experiments comparing young and older adults on category rule learning. In Experiment 1, two-dimensional stimuli (lines varying in length and orientation) were learned according to either an explicit (verbalizable) rule requiring selective attention to one dimension or an implicit rule requiring integration of dimensions. In Experiment 2, participants categorized 4-dimensional color/shape stimuli (a modified Wisconsin Card Sorting Task) according to explicit or implicit rules. In both experiments, accuracy was higher for young adults than for older adults. In both experiments accuracy was higher for rule-based than for information integration categories, and this difference was more pronounced for older adults. In Experiment 2 (card sorting), older adults required more trials to reach an accuracy criterion. Decision bound modeling indicated that a greater proportion of older adults adopted suboptimal decision rule types.

Meeting abstract presented at VSS 2018