According to the introductory information about cognitive skills in elderly people,
a. in general, elderly adults are more confident about their skills than young adults are.
b. other variablessuch as health or educationcan explain part of the age-related cognitive differences.
c. when researchers eliminate several other relevant variables, elderly adults and young adults have almost identical cognitive abilities.
d. in general, elderly adults and young adults have had similar recent experience with memorizing material.
Question 2Suppose researchers test 100 college students, whose ages range from 18 to 23. They also test 100 people at a nearby community center for older adults, whose ages range from 70 to 75.
The participants are instructed to read a series of short essays and answer questions on them. The average score is 72 correct for the elderly people, and 85 correct for the college students. Which of the following four conclusions would you be most likely to choose?
a. You would conclude that the younger people have better memory than the older people.
b. You would conclude that the differences in the average scores can be traced to differences in the working memory of the two groups.
c. You would recommend that the same study should be repeated with larger groups of participants.
d. You would recommend that the study should be repeated, matching the two groups in terms of variables such as education and health.
Question 3Your textbook describes several methodological problems that arise when conducting research with elderly individuals. These problems included the fact that
a. elderly people tend to be better educated than younger people.
b. elderly people are typically less anxious than younger people.
c. elderly people typically have more health problems than younger people.
d. irrelevant variables are often too carefully controlled.
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