Abstract
This study tested the hypothesis that older adults retain high levels of everyday problem solving performance when confronting problems of maximal ecological relevance, identified through idiographic methods. Younger, middle-aged, and older adults completed a daily challenge questionnaire (DCQ) in which they reported problems of maximal personal relevance or idiographic problems. The large majority of the problems reported were interpersonal. We then assessed performance on an everyday problem-solving task in which participants generated solutions for idiographic problems as well as problems generated by group matched research participants representing each of two other age groups (e.g., older adults received their own problems plus problems generated by matched younger and middle-aged adults). Performance was measured by computing the total number of safe and effective solutions provided. Results fully supported our hypothesis; adults of all ages showed higher performance when solving their idiographic problems.
Highlights
IntroductionA number of basic information-processing capacities – perceptual abilities, the control of attention, and working memory – decline inevitably with advancing age (Birren and Schaie, 2005; Gaesser et al, 2017)
How does cognition change across the course of life? On the one hand, a number of basic information-processing capacities – perceptual abilities, the control of attention, and working memory – decline inevitably with advancing age (Birren and Schaie, 2005; Gaesser et al, 2017)
Before turning to our main hypotheses, we analyzed the content of the problems that participants described when completing the daily challenge questionnaire (DCQ)
Summary
A number of basic information-processing capacities – perceptual abilities, the control of attention, and working memory – decline inevitably with advancing age (Birren and Schaie, 2005; Gaesser et al, 2017). Older adults may gain pragmatic wisdom in handling the challenges of life (Baltes and Staudinger, 2000) that help offset losses in speed at the information processing level. A cognitive task that has proven to be revealing of such age-related trends is everyday problem solving, defined as the solving of life challenges that generally are open to more than one solution (Mienaltowski, 2011). The capacity to generate solutions to everyday problems rests partly on the ability to draw upon mentally represented and socially acquired knowledge.
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