Age differences in concept formation

Abstract

In order to identify the source of age-related deficits in concept formation, older and younger adults completed a new Concept Matching Test, tests of selective attention, and the Sorting Test, a standardized test of concept formation (Delis, Kaplan, & Kramer, 2001). Older adults showed intact concept identification, the ability to generate abstract concepts from stimulus features, but age differences were observed when irrelevant features were present. In addition, selective attention, but not concept identification ability, predicted age-related declines on the Sorting Test. Thus, reduced concept formation in older adults may stem from declines in abilities other than the capacity for abstraction.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by the National Institute on Aging (Grant AG10593) awarded to the first author. We would like to thank Anna Agranovich and Jasmine Hudepohl for help with data collection. We additionally thank those who kindly volunteered as study participants. Portions of these data were submitted by the second author as a master's thesis, and were additionally presented at the Meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society (St. Louis, February, 2005).