Implicit learning and retention of serial patterns in middle-aged adults

The alternating serial reaction time (ASRT) task (Howard & Howard, 1997) was used to investigate implicit learning and retention in middle age adults. Previously, Howard and Howard found age-related differences between groups of young (early 20's) and old (65+ years old) participants. The goal of this research was to examine implicit learning & retention and the role of normal aging in these processes for a middle aged sample (34–52 years old, M = 45.3, SD = 4.87).; Forty-five students and faculty from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces volunteered for the study. All participants-used computer software running on a Macintosh iMac computer with a 640 x 480 117 MHz color display, and an Apple USB Keyboard. For the Response Task of the experiment the software displayed a “target” in one the four spatial target locations. A target consisted of one of the circles filling in with black. Each target was displayed until the participant pressed the correct key corresponding to the target location. For the Generate Task the software displayed open circles at the same four locations identical to the Response Task. The participants generated a sequence of targets by pressing the keys associated with each location as described above to approximate a series of trials from the Response task. Each filled circle was displayed until the participant pressed the next key in the sequence.; The experiment consisted of three days of activities. The first two days composed the initial learning portion of the experiment. The third day of the study occurred after a prescribed retention interval of eight weeks.; The results indicate that there is a continuous decline in implicit learning ability across the life span. Results also indicate middle age adults do not learn the higher-order structure of the alternating patterns used. However, after accounting for differences in initial learning, older individuals retain the implicitly learned second order structure at least as well as younger individuals over an eight week period.