Adult Age Differences and the Role of Cognitive Resources in Perceptual--Motor Skill Acquisition: Application of a Multilevel Negative Exponential Model

Paolo Ghisletta, Kristen M. Kennedy, Karen M. Rodrigue, Ulman Lindenberger and Naftali Raz

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2010, vol. 65B, issue 2, 163-173

Abstract: The effects of advanced age and cognitive resources on the course of skill acquisition are unclear, and discrepancies among studies may reflect limitations of data analytic approaches. We applied a multilevel negative exponential model to skill acquisition data from 80 trials (four 20-trial blocks) of a pursuit rotor task administered to healthy adults (19--80 years old). The analyses conducted at the single-trial level indicated that the negative exponential function described performance well. Learning parameters correlated with measures of task-relevant cognitive resources on all blocks except the last and with age on all blocks after the second. Thus, age differences in motor skill acquisition may evolve in 2 phases: In the first, age differences are collinear with individual differences in task-relevant cognitive resources; in the second, age differences orthogonal to these resources emerge. Copyright 2010, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2010
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