Harvey L. Sterns

Later-Life Planning: Promoting Knowledge of Options and Choice-Making.

The effectiveness of a person-centered later-life planning training program designed to teach older adults (N = 60) with mental retardation about later-life planning issues and increase their participation in choice-making was examined. Using quantitative data analyses, we assessed the impact of the program on intervention and control groups. Results indicated that the intervention group gained more knowledge of concepts in the curriculum and made more choices over time than did the control group. The wide variety of goals that participants set were examined through qualitative analyses; 87% of the participants met or partially met their goals. Information on the supports and barriers to meeting goals is provided.

A review of age changes in perceptual information processing ability with regard to driving

Age related changes in the sensory modalities of hearing and vision, along with changes in the information processing abilities of selective attention, perceptual style, and perceptual-motor reaction time, were reviewed in the context of driving behavior. Literature reported, indicated age related changes in these abilities have relevance for the understanding of the driving behavior of the older adult.

Modification of Concept Identification Performance in Older Adults

A sequential training procedure combining operant and cumulative learning hierarchy principles was found effective in reducing the decrement in concept identification performance typically observed in older adults. Subjects aged 63 to 83 years were given a pretest and posttest, each involving a three-category unidimensional concept identification problem. The training and reinforced training subjects were given three training sessions between pretest and posttest. Training involved a programmed learning sequence designed to facilitate the development of an effective solution strategy. Control subjects were given only the pretest and posttest, while practice subjects were given three additional practice sessions. Substantial improvement was found in both the training and reinforced training groups, but only slight improvement obtained in the practice and control groups. These results were considered consistent with recent conceptions of cognitive and intellectual development in the older adult in which performance deficits are largely attributed to experiential factors.

Issues in work and aging

A number of different issues of aging affect work organizations. Workers age in the usual sense of biological, psychological, and social aging. Workers age in an organizational sense resulting in a need for training and growth. Updating may prevent or minimize obsolescence. Human factors approaches can support adult and older adult workers through designing or redesigning a work situation in a way sensitive to the physical and cognitive demands of a job. Demands on individual workers can change in middle age and older adulthood as caregiving demands of family members must be balanced with work.

Designing a Measure of Visual Selective Attention to Assess Individual Differences in Information Processing

A new method for determining individual differ ences in information processing was developed and illustrated. The measure, Visual Selective Attention, was constructed according to the parameters and specifications of a standardized measure of auditory selective attention. Emphasis was placed upon es tablishing the relationship of this new measure with traditional measures of information processing (i.e., perceptual style and selective attention). The results provided initial evidence for the reliability and val idity of the new measure. Applications for Visual Selective Attention and interpretation of the find ings are discussed in view of the current state of the information-processing literature. Implications for additional research focus upon the practical appli cations of the new measure.

Alternatives to age for assessing occupational performance capacity

For the past four decades, the assessment of performance of older workers has commanded considerable discussion but limited systematic investigation from industrial gerontologists. Progress has not been substantial; only recently have they concerned themselves with the legal implications of various personnel assessment strategies. This report is thus a critical examination of the concept of functional age in both psychological and legal arenas. Criticisms of this approach as well as litigation that has arisen from the difficulty of measuring older worker performance via functional age strategies receive special attention. It is suggested that intrinsic attributes serve as the basis for determination of the competence of both older and younger workers.

An Exploratory Investigation of the Personality Correlates of Aging Using the Hand Test

The Hand Test was administered to 27 older adults of both sexes (Mage = 66.56) to investigate possible changes in personality concomitant with normal aging. To control partially for such factors as cultural influences and intelligence differences a matched-pair design was used in which the test protocols of the older adults were matched with those of their children of the same sex (Mage = 36.44). Though the Hand Test has not been independently validated on older adults, results were consistent with past findings using projective techniques inasmuch as depletion and constriction of personality were noted. Criticisms of research on the clinical assessment of the elderly were discussed.

Chapter 1 The Evolution of Gerontology Education Over Three Decades Reflections and Prospects

Gerontology is, in many ways, a young scientifi c fi eld of study, and systematic discussion of how to educate gerontologists is an even more recent phenomenon. As gerontology scholars have sought to defi ne the fi eld, there is the related question of how to educate students interested in the study of aging. More specifi c questions abound: What curriculum is deemed essential? Is there a paradigm for the fi eld that can be cogently expressed to students? How should gerontology education programs be structured? These and other questions received systematic attention in the United States during the 1970s. Sensing the magnitude of the task, a multidisciplinary collection of gerontology scholars spearheaded the creation of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) in 1974. And the energy of AGHE’s early years resulted in a spurt of reports and books addressing the aforementioned questions (e.g., Seltzer, Sterns, & Hickey, 1978; Sterns, Ansello, Sprouse, & Layfi eld-Faux, 1979). Although it is not our aim to comprehensively answer those seminal questions in this chapter, we believe there is value in (a) reviewing some of the major changes during the past 30 years and (b) identifying salient issues that have yet to be resolved. Indeed, in some ways, it has been argued that many of the debates have not advanced much at all (Ferraro, 2006). In other ways, the changes have been dramatic.

Technology and the Aging Adult: Career Development and Training

Direct observation of the impact of technology on the organization may be difficult, particularly when resulting changes occur slowly and on many levels. Theories exist, however, to serve as guides as to where changes may be expected.

Controlled Visual Input and Exploratory Activity in C57BL/6J Mice

Previous studies have shown that blinded rats, deprived of both patterned (complexity) and unpatterned (illumination) components of normal visual input, exhibit increased exploratory activity. The purpose of the present study was to determine the relative contributions of loss of the two components to increased activity in the mouse. In Exp. I, filters were placed over the eyes which permitted transmission of both illumination and complexity (clear), illumination only (translucent), or neither (opaque). Increased activity occurred only when illumination was reduced (opaque group). In Exp. II, unfiltered animals were run in visually simple or complex open fields. No differences in activity were observed. It is suggested that increased activity with elimination of illumination is associated with nocturnality. Three possible explanations for failure to obtain effects from variation of the complexity component are examined.