Associative learning and short-term forgetting as a function of age, perceptual speed, and central executive functioning.

In a study of two components of associative learning, it was found that during acquisition older people were more likely to forget material on which they were previously correct, but only for associations which were not well learned. Older people also formed fewer correct associations in the course of the task. Differences in learners' perceptual speed were found to account for some of the age deficit in the number of learning attempts, but speed was less relevant in accounting for age differences in forgetting and in the ability to generate new responses. Measured central executive functioning was less important in accounting for age differences on all measures. It is argued that forgetting is less important as a source of learning performance than has been suggested elsewhere (e.g., Salthouse, 1994). Rather, it is the inability of older persons to form associations as rapidly as younger ones which accounts for most of the age effect.

Blocks in choice responding as a function of age and physical fitness.

Although both physical fitness and aspects of cognitive functioning are known to be poorer among older people, there is conflicting evidence about the interaction between age and fitness. Is greater age more strongly associated with impaired cognition among less fit people than it is among more fit people? In a sample of employed men aged 17-63 years, it is shown that this interaction is significant with respect to the occurrence of exceptionally slow responses but is not significant for mean reaction time. Multiple regression analyses suggest that the former measure may be interpreted as an inability to maintain concentration over time rather than as an index of response speed.

Unemployment and psychological ill-health: the moderating role of duration and age.

The relationship between length of unemployment and psychological ill-health was examined in a sample of 954 unemployed working-class men, selected to cover all levels of age and several levels of duration of unemployment. The association between length of unemployment and psychological ill-health was found to be strongest in the middle age groups, with greater ill-health among those with a longer duration since job loss. No association between duration and ill-health was found for those who had recently entered the labour market or who were close to the end of their working lives. Desire for a job and financial stress were shown to be additional mediators of psychological ill-health during employment. A cumulative stress model is proposed to account for these findings.