Influence of working memory on adult age differences in matrix reasoning

Bibliographic Data

ID5268849
AuthorsTimothy A Salthouse (Georgia Institute of Technology, corresponding author)
Year1993
Volume84
Issue2
Pages171-199
Publication date1993-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBritish Journal of Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-1269 • E-ISSN: 2044-8295
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.2044-8295.1993.tb02472.x
PMID8319054
OpenAlexW1970388641
LanguageEN
Citations received9

The four studies reported in this article, involving a total of 401 adults ranging between 18 and 80 years of age, were designed to investigate how working memory might mediate adult age differences in matrix reasoning tasks such as the Raven's Progressive Matrices Test. Evidence of this mediation is available in the finding that statistical control of an index of working memory reduces the age-related variance in matrix reasoning performance by approximately 70 per cent. Because the age differences were nearly constant across items of varying difficulty, it was concluded that the factors responsible for variation in item difficulty were distinct from those responsible for the age differences. However, young adults were found to be more accurate than older adults at recognizing information presented earlier in the matrix reasoning trial, thereby supporting the interpretation that working memory exerts its influence by contributing to the preservation of information during subsequent processing

Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Mediation · Raven's Progressive Matrices · Short-term memory · Variance (accounting) · Working memory · Young adult · Cognitive Abilities and Testing · Psychology

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