Long-term efficacy of fluid ability interventions with older adults.

Three-year follow-up data were gathered from 108 elderly persons to investigate the long-term efficacy of fluid ability (Gf) interventions with the aged. Results suggested that the effects of reminding older persons to use previously acquired training strategies facilitated 3-year Letter Series performance, particularly so for stress inoculation participants. No reminder effects were observed for Letter Sets scores. While 3-year declines in Letter Sets performance were observed for all persons, losses in Letter Sets performance were minimized to a greater extent for stress inoculation group participants than for those in both the induction training and control conditions. These data collectively underscore the interaction between qualitatively different types of Gf interventions and the ongoing use of previously acquired training strategies as factors in the maintenance of Gf training effects in older persons.

Fatigue, depression, and cognitive performance among aged persons.

Previous research by the authors has suggested that older persons who are depressed may be especially susceptible to the effects of fatigue in situations where multiple skills are assessed. The impact of fatigue and the effects of depression on cognitive performance have long been recognized as impediments to the accurate assessment of competence in the aged. To investigate such influences, data were gathered from 72 aged persons who had been screened for depression and assigned to one of three conditions varying in effort and the fatigue-inducing nature of the tasks to be solved. Results suggested depressed persons were more prone to fatigue. For measures of both active and passive short-term memory, depression and task effort impacted on performance. Such effects were considerably weaker for measures of intelligence.