Cognitive Consequences of Education: Transfer of Training in the Elderly
French, Lucia Ann
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/66571
Description
Title
Cognitive Consequences of Education: Transfer of Training in the Elderly
Author(s)
French, Lucia Ann
Issue Date
1980
Department of Study
Psychology
Discipline
Psychology
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Psychology, Experimental
Language
eng
Abstract
The research reported here was carried out with the dual motives of exploring a hypothesis concerning the long term cognitive consequences of education and of attempting to adapt and standardize a Soviet clinical procedure for diagnosing retardation for use as an empirical method. The Soviet procedure, based on Vygotsky's (1978) theory of a zone of proximal development, offers a method of training which also allows for the assessment of speed of learning and distance of transfer. An adaptation of this procedure was followed in an attempt to train elderly subjects, who varied in the level of education they had received, to solve matrix problems similar to those found on Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices Test. The results indicated that the training did improve subjects' ability to solve matrix problems. Both speed of learning and flexibility were a function of prior educational level. The results are discussed in terms of possible reasons for the elderly's generally poor performance on cognitive measures, the long term cognitive consequences of education, and the possibilities for using the general procedure based on Vygotsky's theory in various areas, such as retardation research, in which training and transfer of training are central issues.
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