Age-Related Differences in Random Generation

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of age on a random generation task. In Experiment 1, young and elderly subjects were asked to generate random strings of letters at 1-, 2-, and 4-s rates. The elderly subjects produced more alphabetical stereotype responses than young subjects, even in the slowest rate condition. Furthermore, as faster rates were imposed, elderly subjects could no longer maintain the pace and missed responses. In Experiment 2, subjects were required to generate letters at the same time that they sorted cards into one, two, four, or eight categories. Age-related differences were observed on most of the measures of randomness (stereotypes, zero-order, and first-order measures). In addition, the number of errors increased with the number of sorting alternatives, especially for elderly subjects. These results suggest the existence of a reduction of the central executive resources, along with a reduced inhibition ability, in the elderly subjects. However, the contribution of a perceptual speed factor is also discussed.

Demographic Influences on Baseline and Derived Scores From the Trail Making Test in Healthy Older Australian Adults

“…However, it would appear that the influence was limited to psychomotor speed, as only TMT-A performance was significantly predicted by gender. In addition, our results indicated that TMT-B was influenced by a small but significant effect of education, which is consistent with the more general effect of this variable on executive function (Daigneault & Braun, 1993;Fisk & Warr, 1996;Keys & White, 2000;Schretlen et al, 2000;Van der Linden, Beerten, & Pesenti, 1998;West, 2001). The influence of education was of particular interest due to the relative absence of education-adjusted normative data in the literature.…”

Sequential effects on speeded information processing: A developmental study

“…Additional support comes from recent studies examining developmental change in random number generation. When adults are required to generate random numbers, they exhibit a strong tendency to avoid repetitions (Kareev, 1992;van der Linden, Beerten, & Pesenti, 1998; but see Nickerson, 2002). The tendency to favor alternations in random number generation is less pronounced in children (Towse & McLachlan, 1999).…”

Number generation bias after action observation

“…The participants were explicitly instructed to take their time in order to answer, and no particular response time window was imposed. It was pointed out that the number sequence should be wholly jumbled and should not consist of systematic ascending, descending, or somehow ordered sequence (for similar instructions, see Van der Linden et al 1998). On average, a trial lasted about 2500 ms.…”