The relation between three cognitive ability factors and three personality dimensions were examined in three age groups. Subjects were 969 male volunteers ranging in age from 25 to 82. While personality has some influence on cognitive performance, declines with age in performance on some cognitive tasks are not mediated by personality. (Author)

The Wickens "release from proactive inhibition" task involves presenting several trigrams of one type for several trials and then shifting to another type. College students, elderly community residents, and elderly rest-home residents were compared on the Wickens task. College students were superior in over-all memory. (Author)

Sleep patterns of elderly subjects (N=12) differed from young adult levels. When sleep variables were compared with individual changes in intellectual function measured across the seventh through 10th decades of life, a positive correlation was found between time in REM sleep and several longitudinal measures of mental functioning. (Author)

Reports problems connected with retrospective life span interviews of Australian older adults (N=204). Sources of bias arising from interview situations and interviewer/respondent interactions are discussed. Results suggest retrospective analysis deserves respect for factual potential. Gerontology research must also respect the integrity of the…

Evaluated the effects of bereavement on 211 older adults two months after their spouse's death. Results showed strong differences between bereaved individuals and controls on measures of grief and mental health. Women reported greater distress; however there were no sex differences that were related directly to spouse loss. (WAS)

Developed an expanded ecological model of rural mental health to examine predictors of mental health in 989 rural older adults. Activity level and satisfaction with dwelling were the strongest predictors of well-being for both men and women. Overall, results suggested a less complex model for men. (JAC)

Tested the hypothesis that increased task difficulty elicits more efficient problem-solving strategies from older adults, using "Twenty Questions" tasks with either 64 or 10,000 possible solutions. Although younger adults were more efficient, there was not evidence that task difficulty affected problem-solving for either age group. (Author/JAC)

Community-dwelling older adults (N=364) described their own sex roles using the Bem Sex Role Inventory and were tested with additional measures of mental and physical health and current life situation. Most elderly persons described androgynous roles. Perceived sex roles related to several dimensions of life situation and well-being. (Author)

Examined responses of self-ascribed handicapped and nonhandicapped persons to six life satisfaction measures to establish their construct validity. Results offered substantial evidence for the construct validity of life satisfaction. (RC)

Analyzed predictors of retirement using data from seven longitudinal studies. Results show predictors of retirement vary depending on how retirement is defined. The strongest predictors of objective retirement are structural factors. Predictors of early retirement and of age at retirement include both structural factors and subjective factors.…

Study replicates and extends the results obtained by Attig and Hasher (1980) in finding null effects for adult age variation and instructional variation on a relative frequency judgment task. Finds nonsignificant covariation for both young and elderly adults between judgment proficiency and paired-associate learning proficiency. (Author)

Studies examine the validity of a desired control measure upon a survey of senior citizens to establish what contributes to their psychological adjustment. Desired control correlates with psychological adjustment, indicating that seniors who feel more in control of everyday events will be better adjusted. (Author)

Investigated how urban elderly spend their days. Obtained detailed time budgets for one full day from 535 persons with differing levels of independence in contrasting environmental settings. Consistent patterns appeared across groups, particularly in the amount of time spent in the various social contexts and in most discretionary activities.…

Examines the effects of different amounts of irrelevant information on adult age differences in problem solving. Reaction times were slower as a function of increased age and increased levels of variable irrelevant information. Age-associated inability to ignore irrelevant information is partially responsible for the well-documented decline in…

The new scale was a better predictor of "avowed happiness" in both validation and cross-validation samples than the existing scales used for comparison. Moreover, the new scale's test-retest reliability was within an acceptable range for this type of scale. (Author)