Experimental Aging Research
ISSN: 0361-073X (Print) 1096-4657 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uear20
Dimensional prefernces in middle and old age George W. Rebok , William J. Hoyer & Cynthia Adams To cite this article: George W. Rebok , William J. Hoyer & Cynthia Adams (1979) Dimensional prefernces in middle and old age, Experimental Aging Research, 5:3, 251-261, DOI: 10.1080/03610737908257202 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03610737908257202
Published online: 27 Sep 2007.
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DIMENSIONAL PREFERENCES IN MIDDLE AND OLD AGE GEORGE W.REBOK
WILLIAM J. HOYER
Department of PsychoIogy California State University, Long Beach Long Beach, CaIifornia90840 U.S.A.
Department of Psychology Syracuse University Syracuse, New York 13210 U.S.A.
CYNTHIA A D A M S Department of Psychology California State University, Long Beach Long Beach, California 90840
U.S.A.
Rebok, G. W.,Hoyer, W. J., & Adams, C . Dimensional preferences in middle and old age. Experimental Aging Research, 1979, 5 (3). 251-261. Dimensional preferences in 40 middle-aged (M= 41.62 years) and 40 elderly (M = 72.22 years) females were assessed using a dimensional choice task. Significant age differences in reaction times of choice but not in number of dimensional choices were obtained. There was a perfect rank-order correspondence between the two age groups in dimensional choices with form being the most preferred and color the least preferred perceptual dimension.
Age-associated.differences in dimensional preferences have been the focus of numerous developmental investigations. Dimensional preferences are indexed by the frequency with which a particular perceptual relation or dimension is used as a basis for classifying. As early as 1929, Brian and Goodenough showed that preschoolers preferred color to form while elementary school children, when given a similar choice, preferred Requests for reprints should be sent to George W. Rebok, Department of Psychology, California State University, Long Beach, California 90840.
262
FtEBOK/HOPER/ADAMS
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form to color. Support for Brian and Goodenough's results can be found in more recent studies of dimensional salience In children (e.g., see Odom & Guzman, 1972; Seitz & Weir, 1971; Suchman & Trabasso, lfIf36). Dimensional preferences in adults have not been systematically examined. Mergler (Note 1) reported that elderly adults tended to match more on the basis of color (relative to form or shape) than young adults, but this trend was not statistically significant. Odom and Lemond (1975) and Rebok, Hoyer, and Marx (Note 2) examined the effects of dimensional preferences on the subsequent problem solving performance of adult subjects. Odom and Lemond (1975) reported that the incidental recall performance of young college-aged adults was not significantly related to the salience value of the incidental dimensions. Rebok et al. (Note 2) found that elderly adults made proportionately more errors along the number, color, and position (or orientation) dimensions than middle-aged or young adults on a matching-to-standard task. No significant dimensional effects were obtained for a reaction time measure. There was no independent salience assessment in either of the above two studies. Odom and Lemond (1976) and Rebok et al. (Note 2) have indicated the need for more empirical data on salience-ordered dimensional hierarchies in adulthood. These investigators support a theoretical position in which the perceptual system and salience hierarchies are assigned roles that are distinguished from those of other conceptual processes. From this theoretical perspective, all information for veridical or true perception is contained In invariant relationships in the external environment and is not a product of internal cognitive operations involving stored associations, images, and/or inferences (see Gibson, 1969). In principle these invariants are characterized by a highly complex mathematical arrangement that is revealed in the course of spatial and temporal change (Turvey, 1977). Included among'these invariants are dimensions such as form, color,
DIMENSIONAL PREFERENCES
263
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number, and orientation. It is assumed that once a dimension of difference is detected, it remains available to the perceptual system, which, in turn, becomes increasingly sensitive to that dimension primarily as a result of increasing perceptual experience in the form of seeing, touching, hearing, etc.
In its extreme form, the dimensional salience viewpoint suggests that perception alone changes with development in childhood and adulthood while cognition remains constant. In contrast, many investigators have assumed that the perceptual system remains invariant across the life span and becomes increasingly subordinate to the conceptual system (see Odom & Guzman, 1972, for a review). In order to fully understand the nature of conceptual processes such as memory, planning, and decision making, it is important to control for the possible confounding effects of perceptual factors. Manipulating dimensional salience on structurally isomorphic problems is one way to control for these effects. However, the more immediate assessment goal is to devise and refine techniques and methods for adequately describing age-associated dimensional hierarchies across a broad span of development (Odom & Guzman, 1972). Accordingly, the major aim of the present study was to investigate the dimensional preferences of middle-aged and elderly adults on a dimensional choice task. An exclusively female sample was employed because of their greater availability at the older age level and the lack of reported sex-related differences in previous studies of dimensional preferences of children and adults. METHOD
Subjects
Subjects were 40 middle-aged ( M = 41.62, SD = 7.71) and 40 elderly ( M = 72.22,SD = 5.62) female adults. Participants were recruited from memberships in community groups and organizations in Central New York and Central Pennsylvania. Mean number of years of formal education were 13.20 (SD = 2.33) and
Downloaded by [Central Michigan University] at 19:57 05 November 2015
264
REBOK/HOYER/ADAMS
13.15 (SD = 3.09) for the middle-aged and elderly, respectively. Both age groups averaged less than three health complaints on a 13-item form of the Cornell Medical Index, a self-report symptom checklist (Brodman, Erdmann, & WOW, 1949). With the exception of three part-time employees, all elderly subjects classified themselves as retired. Procedure All subjects were tested in quiet, comfortable surroundings with the majority (N = 70) tested at their homes or at a
neighbor’s home, and the remainder at their places of employment (N = 8 ) or at a senior center (N = 2). Subjects were first asked to complete a biographical information sheet and the Cornell Medical Index. Next, a dimensional preference test similar to the one employed by Overton and Jordan (1971) was administered. It consisted of thirty 21.6 x 28.0 cm black cards each containing three 7.6 x 7.6 cm white cards. Each white card contained combinations of values from each dimension as follows: form (square and triangle); color (red and blue): number ( 2 or 3 stimulus objects) : and, orientation (horizontal or vertical midline).
In order to determine visual acuity, subjects were first shown a practice card randomly selected from the test cards. No subject had to be dropped from the experiment because of visual problems. Subjects were then instructed to select the pair of cards from each 3-card item that was most alike. One pair of cards had identical values representing one of the four dimensions, while another pair of cards had values from a second dimenslon. The other values were different such that a match between the remaining two dimensions was impossible. The four dimensions yielded six problem combinations and each combination was replicated five times. The order of these dimensions was completely randomized. All thirty cards of the preference task were shown, one at a time, and choice and response latencies recorded. A stopwatch located behind the
Downloaded by [Central Michigan University] at 19:57 05 November 2015
DIMENSIONAL PREFERENCES
255
card holder tray was used to record response times to the nearest tenth of a second for each item. The latency period began when the top of the card rested fully against the back of the holder tray, and ended when subjects respondw by saying which card pair was most alike. Subjects were urged to proceed at a comfortable pace and not to rush. No corrective feedback of any kind was provided. RESULTS The mean number of choices and the mean reaction times of choice for each age group on the dimensional preference task are displayed in Table 1. Separate 2(Age) x 4(Dimensions) repeated measures analyses of variance were computed on each of these dependent variables. No significant age effects were obtained for the number of dimensional choices, but there was a significant effect for dimensions, F (3,234) = 64.g9, pC.001. Tukey pair-wise comparisons revealed that middle-aged and elderly subjects chose form significantly more often than either number, orientation, or color, respectively ( p < .01). Both age groups also reliably preferred number and orientation to color (p< .01),
TABLE 1 Mean Number of Choices and Mean Reution Times for the Dlmensiod Reference Task
Dimensions
Number
Orientation
2.96 (3.30)
8.M (8.07)
7.66 (3.67)
3.35 (4.26
7.52 (4.61j
6.82(442)
Form
Color
Middle-aged
11.35 (2.86)
Elderly
12.30 (3.22)
Age Group
Note: Mean reaction times in seconds are in parentheses.
REBOK/HOYER/ADAMS
266
TABLE 2 Pereenfage of Subjects in Ten of the Most Frequently Chosen Dimensional Hieruachiee
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Age Group Hierarchies
Middle-aged
FONC FNOC FCNO FNCO NFCO NOFC OFCN FOCN OFNC ONFC NFOC NCFO OCFN Totd ~~
~
Elderly 25.00 17.50 10.00 10.00
25.00 17.50 7.50 7.50 7.50 7.50 7.50 5.00 5.00 5.00
5.00
10.00 5.00 2.50 (T) 10.00 2.50 (T) 2.50 (T)
95.00 ~~~
-
~
~~~
100.00 ~
Note: F = form: 0 = orientation; N = number; C = color. The T's in parentheses indicate a tie for tenth place.
while they showed equal preferences for number and orientation. It should be noted that there was a perfect rank-order agreement in the number of choices made by each group across the four dimensions. The interaction between age and dimensions did not reach statistical significance. Of the 24 possible combinations of rank-ordered dimensional hierarchies, the ten most frequently chosen by each age group are presented in Table 2. In the split-plot analysis of reaction time scores there was no significant dimensions effect, but the F-value for age was significant, P (1,78)= 4.46, p
ISSN: 0361-073X (Print) 1096-4657 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uear20
Dimensional prefernces in middle and old age George W. Rebok , William J. Hoyer & Cynthia Adams To cite this article: George W. Rebok , William J. Hoyer & Cynthia Adams (1979) Dimensional prefernces in middle and old age, Experimental Aging Research, 5:3, 251-261, DOI: 10.1080/03610737908257202 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03610737908257202
Published online: 27 Sep 2007.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 7
View related articles
Citing articles: 1 View citing articles
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=uear20 Download by: [Central Michigan University]
Date: 05 November 2015, At: 19:57
251
Downloaded by [Central Michigan University] at 19:57 05 November 2015
DIMENSIONAL PREFERENCES IN MIDDLE AND OLD AGE GEORGE W.REBOK
WILLIAM J. HOYER
Department of PsychoIogy California State University, Long Beach Long Beach, CaIifornia90840 U.S.A.
Department of Psychology Syracuse University Syracuse, New York 13210 U.S.A.
CYNTHIA A D A M S Department of Psychology California State University, Long Beach Long Beach, California 90840
U.S.A.
Rebok, G. W.,Hoyer, W. J., & Adams, C . Dimensional preferences in middle and old age. Experimental Aging Research, 1979, 5 (3). 251-261. Dimensional preferences in 40 middle-aged (M= 41.62 years) and 40 elderly (M = 72.22 years) females were assessed using a dimensional choice task. Significant age differences in reaction times of choice but not in number of dimensional choices were obtained. There was a perfect rank-order correspondence between the two age groups in dimensional choices with form being the most preferred and color the least preferred perceptual dimension.
Age-associated.differences in dimensional preferences have been the focus of numerous developmental investigations. Dimensional preferences are indexed by the frequency with which a particular perceptual relation or dimension is used as a basis for classifying. As early as 1929, Brian and Goodenough showed that preschoolers preferred color to form while elementary school children, when given a similar choice, preferred Requests for reprints should be sent to George W. Rebok, Department of Psychology, California State University, Long Beach, California 90840.
262
FtEBOK/HOPER/ADAMS
Downloaded by [Central Michigan University] at 19:57 05 November 2015
form to color. Support for Brian and Goodenough's results can be found in more recent studies of dimensional salience In children (e.g., see Odom & Guzman, 1972; Seitz & Weir, 1971; Suchman & Trabasso, lfIf36). Dimensional preferences in adults have not been systematically examined. Mergler (Note 1) reported that elderly adults tended to match more on the basis of color (relative to form or shape) than young adults, but this trend was not statistically significant. Odom and Lemond (1975) and Rebok, Hoyer, and Marx (Note 2) examined the effects of dimensional preferences on the subsequent problem solving performance of adult subjects. Odom and Lemond (1975) reported that the incidental recall performance of young college-aged adults was not significantly related to the salience value of the incidental dimensions. Rebok et al. (Note 2) found that elderly adults made proportionately more errors along the number, color, and position (or orientation) dimensions than middle-aged or young adults on a matching-to-standard task. No significant dimensional effects were obtained for a reaction time measure. There was no independent salience assessment in either of the above two studies. Odom and Lemond (1976) and Rebok et al. (Note 2) have indicated the need for more empirical data on salience-ordered dimensional hierarchies in adulthood. These investigators support a theoretical position in which the perceptual system and salience hierarchies are assigned roles that are distinguished from those of other conceptual processes. From this theoretical perspective, all information for veridical or true perception is contained In invariant relationships in the external environment and is not a product of internal cognitive operations involving stored associations, images, and/or inferences (see Gibson, 1969). In principle these invariants are characterized by a highly complex mathematical arrangement that is revealed in the course of spatial and temporal change (Turvey, 1977). Included among'these invariants are dimensions such as form, color,
DIMENSIONAL PREFERENCES
263
Downloaded by [Central Michigan University] at 19:57 05 November 2015
number, and orientation. It is assumed that once a dimension of difference is detected, it remains available to the perceptual system, which, in turn, becomes increasingly sensitive to that dimension primarily as a result of increasing perceptual experience in the form of seeing, touching, hearing, etc.
In its extreme form, the dimensional salience viewpoint suggests that perception alone changes with development in childhood and adulthood while cognition remains constant. In contrast, many investigators have assumed that the perceptual system remains invariant across the life span and becomes increasingly subordinate to the conceptual system (see Odom & Guzman, 1972, for a review). In order to fully understand the nature of conceptual processes such as memory, planning, and decision making, it is important to control for the possible confounding effects of perceptual factors. Manipulating dimensional salience on structurally isomorphic problems is one way to control for these effects. However, the more immediate assessment goal is to devise and refine techniques and methods for adequately describing age-associated dimensional hierarchies across a broad span of development (Odom & Guzman, 1972). Accordingly, the major aim of the present study was to investigate the dimensional preferences of middle-aged and elderly adults on a dimensional choice task. An exclusively female sample was employed because of their greater availability at the older age level and the lack of reported sex-related differences in previous studies of dimensional preferences of children and adults. METHOD
Subjects
Subjects were 40 middle-aged ( M = 41.62, SD = 7.71) and 40 elderly ( M = 72.22,SD = 5.62) female adults. Participants were recruited from memberships in community groups and organizations in Central New York and Central Pennsylvania. Mean number of years of formal education were 13.20 (SD = 2.33) and
Downloaded by [Central Michigan University] at 19:57 05 November 2015
264
REBOK/HOYER/ADAMS
13.15 (SD = 3.09) for the middle-aged and elderly, respectively. Both age groups averaged less than three health complaints on a 13-item form of the Cornell Medical Index, a self-report symptom checklist (Brodman, Erdmann, & WOW, 1949). With the exception of three part-time employees, all elderly subjects classified themselves as retired. Procedure All subjects were tested in quiet, comfortable surroundings with the majority (N = 70) tested at their homes or at a
neighbor’s home, and the remainder at their places of employment (N = 8 ) or at a senior center (N = 2). Subjects were first asked to complete a biographical information sheet and the Cornell Medical Index. Next, a dimensional preference test similar to the one employed by Overton and Jordan (1971) was administered. It consisted of thirty 21.6 x 28.0 cm black cards each containing three 7.6 x 7.6 cm white cards. Each white card contained combinations of values from each dimension as follows: form (square and triangle); color (red and blue): number ( 2 or 3 stimulus objects) : and, orientation (horizontal or vertical midline).
In order to determine visual acuity, subjects were first shown a practice card randomly selected from the test cards. No subject had to be dropped from the experiment because of visual problems. Subjects were then instructed to select the pair of cards from each 3-card item that was most alike. One pair of cards had identical values representing one of the four dimensions, while another pair of cards had values from a second dimenslon. The other values were different such that a match between the remaining two dimensions was impossible. The four dimensions yielded six problem combinations and each combination was replicated five times. The order of these dimensions was completely randomized. All thirty cards of the preference task were shown, one at a time, and choice and response latencies recorded. A stopwatch located behind the
Downloaded by [Central Michigan University] at 19:57 05 November 2015
DIMENSIONAL PREFERENCES
255
card holder tray was used to record response times to the nearest tenth of a second for each item. The latency period began when the top of the card rested fully against the back of the holder tray, and ended when subjects respondw by saying which card pair was most alike. Subjects were urged to proceed at a comfortable pace and not to rush. No corrective feedback of any kind was provided. RESULTS The mean number of choices and the mean reaction times of choice for each age group on the dimensional preference task are displayed in Table 1. Separate 2(Age) x 4(Dimensions) repeated measures analyses of variance were computed on each of these dependent variables. No significant age effects were obtained for the number of dimensional choices, but there was a significant effect for dimensions, F (3,234) = 64.g9, pC.001. Tukey pair-wise comparisons revealed that middle-aged and elderly subjects chose form significantly more often than either number, orientation, or color, respectively ( p < .01). Both age groups also reliably preferred number and orientation to color (p< .01),
TABLE 1 Mean Number of Choices and Mean Reution Times for the Dlmensiod Reference Task
Dimensions
Number
Orientation
2.96 (3.30)
8.M (8.07)
7.66 (3.67)
3.35 (4.26
7.52 (4.61j
6.82(442)
Form
Color
Middle-aged
11.35 (2.86)
Elderly
12.30 (3.22)
Age Group
Note: Mean reaction times in seconds are in parentheses.
REBOK/HOYER/ADAMS
266
TABLE 2 Pereenfage of Subjects in Ten of the Most Frequently Chosen Dimensional Hieruachiee
Downloaded by [Central Michigan University] at 19:57 05 November 2015
Age Group Hierarchies
Middle-aged
FONC FNOC FCNO FNCO NFCO NOFC OFCN FOCN OFNC ONFC NFOC NCFO OCFN Totd ~~
~
Elderly 25.00 17.50 10.00 10.00
25.00 17.50 7.50 7.50 7.50 7.50 7.50 5.00 5.00 5.00
5.00
10.00 5.00 2.50 (T) 10.00 2.50 (T) 2.50 (T)
95.00 ~~~
-
~
~~~
100.00 ~
Note: F = form: 0 = orientation; N = number; C = color. The T's in parentheses indicate a tie for tenth place.
while they showed equal preferences for number and orientation. It should be noted that there was a perfect rank-order agreement in the number of choices made by each group across the four dimensions. The interaction between age and dimensions did not reach statistical significance. Of the 24 possible combinations of rank-ordered dimensional hierarchies, the ten most frequently chosen by each age group are presented in Table 2. In the split-plot analysis of reaction time scores there was no significant dimensions effect, but the F-value for age was significant, P (1,78)= 4.46, p
