A sleep questionnaire was administered to 80 Mexican American and 80 Anglo elderly, ages 60 to 96. The Mexican American sample reported poorer quality and longer latency of sleep, greater negative affect concerning dreams, longer sleep duration, less dream recall, more regular sleep, and more positive valence towards sleep. (JHZ)

Two experiments investigated whether young and old adults can temporarily remove information from a capacity-limited central component of working memory (WM) into another component, the activated part of long-term memory (LTM). Experiment 1 used a modified Sternberg recognition task (S. Sternberg, 1969); Experiment 2 used an arithmetic…

Purpose: Pathological gambling is an increasing public health concern, but very little is known about this disorder in older adults. This study evaluated gambling and psychosocial problems across age groups in treatment-seeking gamblers. Design and Methods: At intake to gambling treatment programs, 343 pathological gamblers completed the Addiction…

To determine why some persons leave the university while others remain in the student role, a study compared a group of 44 university students aged 60 and over with a group of 50 ex-students of the same age. The two groups were comparable in age, education, sex, and income. The ex-students stayed at the university a significantly shorter time (2.5…

A study compared the differences among public and private sector rehabilitation professionals with respect to their attitudes toward aging, fear of aging, and involvement with older clients. Demographic variables of age, sex, race, and educational status were also examined. The study sample included 325 full-time, nonclerical employees of…

Changes have occurred in the geographic concentrations of elderly people in the United States between 1950 and 1970. The paper examines these trends and identifies the factors which influenced them. Census data from 1950 and 1970 were analyzed as a basis for the study. In 1950, 8.1% of the population was classified as older. States with high…

Data collected from 318 libraries across the United States are used to (1) identify, describe, and compare the extent and variety of current library services for older adults with those in 1971, and (2) measure variables in organizational support and suggest how they might influence service provision. (Author/CLB)

Examines the relationship between computer anxiety and computer experience for older (over 55) and younger (under 30) adults. Data were collected from 422 subjects using attitude and anxiety scales. Results indicated that older adults were less computer anxious than younger adults but had less computer confidence. No gender differences were found…

Positive psychology has recently developed a classification of human strengths (Peterson & Seligman, in press). We aimed to evaluate these strengths by investigating the strengths and life satisfaction in three adult samples recruited from the community (young adult, middle-aged, and older adult), as well as in the surviving men of the Grant study…

We compared groups with and without diagnosed dementia matched on IQ, age, and presence of Down syndrome. The Dementia Scale for Down Syndrome and Dementia Questionnaire for Mentally Retarded Persons were used to assess participants. We developed two performance tasks to determine whether they were useful in separating subjects with and without…

Transfer of an older worker to a less demanding job not only creates a shortage of skilled labor, but causes the person to lose vitality and self confidence, leading to possible mental deterioration. Retraining of the older worker, moreover, can take five to ten times as long as that of a young worker. A special workshop for older or handicapped…

Two experiments examine whether the encoding of location meets criteria defining an automatic process. Automatic processes are not expected to show developmental changes beyond an early age. They appear to be unrelated to intelligence level and unaffected by instructions. Results support Hasher and Zack's automaticity hypothesis. (RWB)

Assessed effects of nursing home staff training in care for the dying on quality of life of 306 terminally ill patients in 5 pairs of matched nursing homes assigned randomly to trained and not trained staff groups. Patients in trained homes had less depression and greater satisfaction with care than patients in control homes at 1 and 3 months.…

Examines the role of social support in mitigating caregiving stress among two groups of parental caregivers (N=361). Results indicate that although mothers of adults with mental illness had smaller social support networks than mothers of adults with mental retardation, the former were more likely to be members of support groups. (RJM)

A total of 1,135 senior faculty from 6 institutions of higher education responded to a questionnaire designed to determine the relationships between personal and career development for senior college faculty and the similarities and differences in satisfaction among faculty from various disciplines. Responses from the questionnaire showed that…