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Aging, optimal testing times, and negative priming,
Intons-Peterson, M.J., Rocchi, P., West, T., McLellan, K. and Hackney,
A., Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition,
24(2), 362-376 (1998).
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Intons-Peterson, et.al. (1998) evaluated the effect of time-of-day preferences
on user performance. Past research in this area found that younger adults
prefer to perform later in the day, and older adults prefer performing
in the morning. This study found the following preferences:
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Young
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Old
|
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Definite morning
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0%
|
34%
|
|
Moderate morning
|
8%
|
49%
|
|
No preference
|
57%
|
10%
|
|
Moderate evening
|
29%
|
6%
|
|
Definite evening
|
6%
|
1%
|
More younger people preferred the afternoon, and more older people preferred
the morning. Also, more of the younger subjects had no strong preferences.
Using this preference data, they conducted an experiment.
Participants were tested at optimal and non-optimal times. Both older
and younger groups showed improved performance on a memory task when tested
at their preferred time of day. Perhaps more importantly, when tested
at preferred times, older adults showed memory effects similar to those
of younger subjects.
|
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Age, testing at preferred or nonpreferred times
(testing optimality), and false memory, Intons-Peterson, M.J.,
Rocchi, P., West, T., McLellan, K. and Hackney, A., Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 25(1), 23-40 (1999).
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Can In a follow-on study, Intons-Peterson and Rocchi (1999) attempted
again to determine if people perform better when tested at their preferred
times of day. They measured time-of-day preferences using the "Morningness-Eveningness
Questionnaire."
The questionnaire correlates significantly with:
- Self-reported measures of sleep habits (going to bed and arising times),
- Times of best mental and physical performance and alertness,
- School performance, and
- Peak time of oral temperature.
To gain new information, they attempted to determine if age differentials
in optimality were more pronounced in recall than in recognition memory.
Participants were 77 young college students (average age of 20) and 42
older adults (average age of 72). Two groups were tested:
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Optimal
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- Those who preferred morning were tested in the morning
- Those who preferred afternoon in the afternoon
|
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Non-optimal
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- Those who preferred morning were tested in the afternoon
- Those who preferred afternoon in the morning
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Only non-optimally tested older adults showed reliably greater evidence
of poorer performance. With recall performance, the younger group remembered
reliably more. There was no reliable difference between the age groups
on the recognition memory task.
This may be a good way to help ensure that older users perform at the
same level as younger users. Younger users seem to be able to perform
well at all times, but older users perform certain, memory-related, tasks
best when participating at their optimal times.
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