Abstract
Planning ability is important in everyday functioning, and a key measure to assess the preparation and execution of plans is the Tower of London (ToL) task. Previous studies indicate that older adults are often less accurate than the young on the ToL and that there may be cultural differences in performance on the task. However, potential interactions between age and culture have not previously been explored. In the current study we examined the effects of age on ToL performance in an Asian culture (Malaysia) and a Western culture (British) (n = 191). We also explored whether working memory, age, education, and socioeconomic status explained variance in ToL performance across these two cultures. Results indicated that age effects on ToL performance were greater in the Malaysian sample. Subsequent moderated mediation analysis revealed differences between the two cultures (British vs Malaysians), in that the age-related variance in ToL accuracy was accounted for by WM capacity at low and medium education levels only in the Malaysian sample. Demographic variables could not explain additional variance in ToL speed or accuracy. These results may reflect cultural differences in the familiarity and cognitive load of carrying out complex planning tasks.
Highlights
With advancing age, older adults often experience a range of cognitive deficits across multiple domains, including executive function (EF) (Rey-Mermet and Gade, 2018; Jaroslawska and Rhodes, 2019)
In the current study we looked at the effects of age on Tower of London (ToL) performance in a Western (British) and Asian (Malaysian) culture, while taking into account individual differences in working memory (WM), education and subjective SES
We found that the main effect of age was significant, F (1,184) = 24.684, p < 0.001, np2 = 0.118, with young participants having higher ToL accuracy compared to older adults
Summary
Older adults often experience a range of cognitive deficits across multiple domains, including executive function (EF) (Rey-Mermet and Gade, 2018; Jaroslawska and Rhodes, 2019). EF is supported mainly by the prefrontal cortex and it is operationalized by a variety of tasks such as tasks involving memory updating, shifting and cognitive inhibition (Friedman and Miyake, 2017). The tower tasks - Tower of Hanoi “ToH,” and Tower of London “ToL” – introduced by Simon (1975) and Shallice (1982) are frequently used to assess an individual’s planning ability. They are useful in assessing EF for patients with brain damage, in the frontal lobes (Sullivan et al, 2009; Szczepanski and Knight, 2014). Disturbance of frontal lobe networks is often associated with poor inhibition and working memory (WM) deficits, which may
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