Thesis
Identifying the nature of impairment in planning ability with normal aging
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
2011
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/101426
Abstract
Planning ability, a particularly important subset of executive functioning, has been shown to decline with normal aging. However, the exact nature of this decline has yet to be adequately examined. In this study, younger and older adults completed a map task designed to tease apart the formulation and execution stages of planning. A sample of 50 younger adults and 50 older adults were tasked with reading a map layout of a WSU apartment and planning an efficient route that would allow them to complete a series of tasks. There were two conditions, aid and no-aid. During the formulation stage, all participants were instructed to write out their plan for later task completion. In the execution stage, half of the participants were instructed to utilize their written plan to aid their completion of tasks while the other half cognitively guided their completion of the tasks without the use of their written plan. Older adults performed more poorly than younger adults during the formulation and execution stages on measures of accuracy and efficiency. In addition, these differences remained even after controlling for formulation performance, both between all participants and between participant subsets matched on formulation scores. There was no effect of using the aid during execution. Previous findings in the literature have suggested that the execution component of planning is relatively spared in comparison to the formulation component with normal aging. However, in this study we found that deficits in planning ability with normal aging may be related to both the formulation and execution components of planning, and not exclusively to formulation. In addition, this study provides more valid conclusions using an ecologically valid, open-ended task paradigm with real-world stimuli that explicitly separates formulation and execution abilities.
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Details
- Title
- Identifying the nature of impairment in planning ability with normal aging
- Creators
- Chad Joseph Sanders
- Contributors
- Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Psychology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525380201842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis