Ludmiła Zając-Lamparska, Janusz Trempała, Aleksandra Mrówka Stereotypes inhibition in syllogistic reasoning. Changes related to age and time measurement repetition during study

Abstrakt

The aim of this study was to verify the hypothesis saying that older people
on average achieve a lower level of performance than younger at solving syllogisms
which contain stereotypical knowledge about aging, and to decide whether
the nature of the changes taking place during the test (under the influence of exercise)
corresponds to a greater extent to the assumptions of the disuse hypothesis
(greater gradient of improvement in elderly subjects), or to the assumptions about
age-related decline of developmental plasticity (gradient greater of improvement
in the young). Generalizing the empirical findings, we can say that, compared
with younger people a slowdown in the syllogistic reasoning does not characterize
cognitive functioning of people in late adulthood. They can solve syllogisms
just as quickly as younger subjects. However, they respond more slowly when the
tasks are subject to stereotypical content and less accurately when the conclusions
of syllogisms are false. The analysis of differences and patterns of changes in the
speed and correctness of responses during the test of syllogistic reasoning in the
age groups leads to ambiguous statements about the expected influence of the age
of life in the improvement of performance of tasks under the influence of measurement
repetition (practice). We came to the conclusion that in the search for a model
of study, which separates from each other the effects of age (macro-developmental
changes) and repetition of measurements during the test (micro-developmental
changes) probably more useful is a flowchart of tasks’ exposure and comparison of
the changes/differences related to age and measurement time. Thus, such studies
require an increase of the number of measurements/tasks during the test.
Key words: syllogistic reasoning, age stereotypes, dual-reasoning theory, cognitive
ageing