The Effects of age and extraversion on pursuit rotor reminiscence

Abstract

An experiment was performed to determine the effects of chronological age and "extraversion" on reminiscence, using a pursuit rotor task. Three chronological age groups were used: a young adult group (17-25 years ), a middle age group (3 6 - 46 years), and an old group (60-94 years ). From each age group, three subgroups were selected on the basis of scores obtained on the extraversion scale of the Maudsley Personality Inventory (Eys enck, 1959): a high extravert group, a middle extravert group, and a low extravert group. from all three age groups were tested under massed conditions. Young and middle aged Ss were also tested under distributed conditions. Reminiscence was scored by two methods: the method which Eysenck favors, based on the difference between the average of the last three 10-sec. prerest trials and the first 10-sec. postest trial; and the 20-20 method, based on the difference between the last 20 - sec. of prerestand the first 2 0- sec. of postrest practice. Two methods of scoring were used in order to determine whether the results depend specifically up on the method used to compute reminiscence scores. Amount of reminiscence was found to be greatest for the youngest age group regardless of the method of computation used. The age order of size of reminiscence scores obtained by the other two groups varied with the method of computation. No significant differences in amount of reminiscence were found between extraversion subgroups except in the youngest age group. The results are discussed in terms of the Hullian concepts of IR and SIR. It is suggested that as age increases the rate of dissipation of IR decreases and that this affects the development of SIR in different age groups.