Younger and older adults′ use of street directories to plan travel

Abstract

Using maps to find one's way is an important cognitive-spatial everyday skill that is necessary for independence. Street map understanding is a useful domain to investigate individual differences in adulthood planning skills because maps are used by most adults, independent of age. In this study, we examined differences between younger and older adults in using street maps to plan routes and give directions. Fifteen young (M = 36.1 years) and fifteen older (M = 69.3 years) adults studied maps in order to plan routes and give route directions. Task complexity was varied by manipulating the number of map pages used in planning routes. In addition, a measure of working memory was obtained. Although younger adults were better than older adults on all measures, cluster analyses revealed two distinct groups among the older adults: a more competent and a less competent group. The more competent group did not differ in their performance from younger adults. Overall, the results support the view that, on average, there are age-related declines in planning routes and giving directions on maps; however, average performance measures may well mask subgroup differences in older adults.