Murray Glanzer

Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Results in a Study of Age-Related Changes1:

STUDY of the effects of aging on various areas of human behavior is still in its early stages. One indication of this is the fact that little information is available on the effects of aging upon complex skills critical to the individual’s adaptation to his environment. Previous studies have been largely concerned with tasks whose significance for life situations is not known (1, 2). An additional symptom of the undeveloped state of the field is the fact that the contribution of different types of methodology remains unclear (8, 10). In particular, the value of data obtained by cross-sectional methods has been questioned for some time. Only recently with the increasing emphasis on aging effects has this problem begun to receive intensive consideration (1, 10). The present study had two primary objectives. The first was to