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Similar perceptions, similar reactions : an idiographic approach to cross-situational coherence
(1986)
The study provides a test of the interactionist concept of behavioral coherence across situations. Following an approach suggested by D. Magnusson and B. Ekehammer (1978, Journal of Research in Personality, 12, 41-48), individual correlations between self-reported behavior patterns and perceived similarity ratings across anxiety-provoking situations are obtained as measures of coherence. Unlike the Magnusson and Ekehammar study, the present measures of situation cognition and behavior are based on an idiographic sampling of anxiety-provoking situations. As a step toward concept-based measurement of situation cognition, further measures of perceived situational similarity are derived from the script, prototype, and social episodes models in social psychology and correlated with cross-situational similarity of behavioral profiles. It is demonstrated, in comparison with the findings of Magnusson and Ekehammar, that correlations between similarity ratings and behavior patterns increase substantially as a result of an idiographic sampling of situations. Moreover, it is shown that "script," "prototype," and "social episode" measures can be utilized to investigate the covariation between situation cognition and behavior, thus contributing to the clarification of the principles of cognitive representation of situational experience.
Der hier berichtete Forschungsansatz kombiniert entwicklungs- und kognitionspsychologische Fragestellungen. Das entwicklungspsychologische Ziel war, Potential und Grenzen latenter kognitiver Leistungsreserven bei jungen und älteren Erwachsenen sichtbar zu machen. Eine systematische Heranführung an Leistungsgrenzen sollte außerdem die unterschiedliche Alterssensitivität kognitiver Prozesse verdeutlichen und zu einer Vergrößerung interindividueller Unterschiede führen. Das kognitionspsychologische Ziel war, die Genese kognitiver Expertise unter Laborbedingungen zu simulieren, wobei vor allem die Transformation von Laien- in Expertenwissen untersucht werden sollte. Diese Überlegungen wurden in einem Trainingsprogramm überprüft, in dessen Verlauf junge und ältere Erwachsene in einer Gedächtniskunst für das Behalten von Zufallszahlen und Wortlisten unterwiesen wurden. Die Brauchbarkeit dieses experimentellen Paradigmas für die Überprüfung der theoretischen Fragen wird durch Ergebnisse aus vier Einzelfallstudien belegt.
This research has three interrelated foci: (i) engineering and testing a cognitive model of expert memory, (ii) the study of intellectual reserve capacity and (iii) the use of a testing-the-limits methodology to magnify and delineate age differences in limits of reserve capacity. The assumption is that age differences are magnified if studied at high levels of expertise or task difficulty. Results from age-comparative point training studies in expert memory are reported. Both young and elderly subjects reached high levels of skilled memory, confirming the model. However, despite this sizeable reserve capacity, when compared to IQ-eguivalent young adults, superior elderly showed decline in upper limits of function.
Fluid intelligence belongs to that cluster of intellectual abilities evincing aging loss. To examine further the range of intellectual reserve available to aging individuals and the question of replicability in a new cultural and laboratory setting, 204 healthy older adults (mean age = 72 years; range = 60-86) participated in a short-term longitudinal training study. For experimental subjects, 10 sessions consisted of cognitive training involving two subability tests (Figural Relations, Induction) of fluid intelligence. The pattern of outcomes replicates and expands on earlier studies. Older adults have the reserve to evince substantial increases in levels of performance in fluid intelligence tests. Transfer of training, however, is narrow in scope. Training also increases accuracy of performance and the ability to solve more difficult test items. Difficulty level was estimated in a separate study, with a comparable sample of N = 112 elderly adults. Future research is suggested to examine whether intellectual reserve extends to near-maximum levels of performance.