Age and patterns of HMO satisfaction

Consumerism and increasing complexity in health care options highlight the importance of health care satisfaction. Patterns and sources of satisfaction are assessed for health maintenance organizations (HMOs), a relatively novel option, using national survey data. Particular attention is paid to age differences, because HMO Medicare coverage is a recent development and older people generally express little HMO familiarity or receptivity. Higher satisfaction is expressed by HMO members than by nonmembers for both younger and older persons. HMO satisfaction is higher for older than for younger members, a pattern at odds with nonmember attitudes about HMOs. Member satisfaction is a function of the nature of patient/provider ties and related attitudes, as it is among nonmembers. Importance of a "regular" provider is particularly evident among older HMO members. Patterns of HMO satisfaction among older members likely reflects both cohort differences and age-associated patterns of health and related attitudes.     

Age differences in dynamic contrast thresholds.

Contrast thresholds for sinusoidal gratings of 1.5-18 cpd were measured in young (M = 24 years) and older adults (M = 69 years). Thresholds were determined for stationary gratings, and for gratings that traveled along a circular path at 5, 10, and 15 deg/sec. For static gratings, age differences in thresholds were greater for intermediate and higher spatial frequencies. Grating motion increased thresholds for all observers, but older adults exhibited threshold increases at lower target velocities than the young. Age differences in velocity effects were generally greater at intermediate and higher spatial frequencies. Results are discussed in relation to age changes in temporal resolution and smooth pursuit gain.     

Age differences in the effects of perceptual noise.

Elderly (60 to 82 years) and young (18 to 25 years) subjects were tested on a visual task in which noise items were present but did not require processing to test the hypotheses that elderly persons have more difficulty ignoring irrelevent stimuli and suppressing response competition than do younger persons. Tachistoscopically presented displays contained a precued central target letter either alone or flanked by noise items that required (1) a response the same as, or (2) opposite to that required by the target letter, or (3) did not require a response in this task. No evidence was found to support differentially greater response slowing by the elderly due to the presence of irrelevant stimuli. Elderly persons showed significantly less effects of response competition, suggesting that the two groups processed the task information differently. The results suggest that age differences in effects of perceptual noise and response competition are not general phenomena, but depend upon the demand characteristics of the specific task.     

Age differences in body consciousness

Physical changes associated with the aging process have both private and public components, and this study investigated the degree to which elderly persons attend to these changes. Sixty subjects, elderly (n = 30) and young (n = 30), equated in terms of physical health, education, and depression, were compared on measures of private body consciousness, public body consciousness, and body competence. Results indicated that healthy elderly persons are more conscious of their external physical appearance and are more positive in their self-evaluations of body competence than are young subjects.     

Age differences in sentence production

Two experiments have been completed using experimental techniques to study language production under controlled conditions. In Experiment 1, young and older adults were given two, three, or four words and asked to compose a sentence. Older adults' responses were similar to those of young adults when given two or three words. When given four words, the older adults made more errors and their responses were shorter and less elaborate than those of the young adults. In Experiment 2, simple intransitive verbs (smiled), transitive verbs (replaced), and complement-taking verbs (expected) were contrasted. The responses of older adults were similar to those of young adults given intransitive and transitive verbs. Given complement-taking verbs, young adults produced complex sentences, whereas the older adults produced simpler, less complex sentences; the older adults also made many errors. Both experiments found that older adults respond more slowly than young adults.     

Age differences in bimanual coordination

A bimanual coordination experiment was conducted in which two groups of 10 male and female participants, elderly (67 to 75 years of age) and young (21 to 25 years of age), produced unimanual, bimanual symmetrical (equal extent amplitude), and bimanual asymmetrical (unequal extent amplitude) movements. In addition to an overall increase in performance latency, the elderly group exhibited a linear increase in response initiation (RT) with increases in task complexity similar to that of the young group. However, the elderly participants showed a proportional increase over the young participants in response execution latency (MT). Further, the elderly group had a slower RT for short movements than long movements, an effect not found in the young group. Compared with the young participants, the elderly participants showed greater asynchrony in response initiation of bimanual movements; increased inability to subsequently compensate during response execution also resulted in a greater asynchrony in response termination. These results suggest specific aging deficits in bimanual coordination processes.     

Age differences in implicit interference

We assessed age differences in interference effects in priming by using fragment completion. In Experiment 1, noninterfering filler words preceded critical targets at study, and priming was age invariant. In Experiment 2, the same target items had interfering competitors at the beginning of the list, such that both the target and the competitor were legitimate solutions to a fragment. Having two responses to a cue was disruptive for older adults, but not for younger adults. Younger and older adults differ in their susceptibility to interference in implicit tasks, and interference may play a role in influencing the magnitude of age differences in priming.     

Age differences in productive activities

Age differences in productive contributions through both paid and unpaid work are examined in commensurate terms. Data are from a nationwide household survey of 3,617 adults age 25 and older conducted in 1986. Older Americans participate in many unpaid productive activities at levels that are comparable to those reached by middle-aged and younger Americans; these activities include volunteer work in organizations, informal help to others, maintenance and repair of their home and possessions, and housework. Relatively few older Americans spend any time participating in paid work and unpaid rearing of children. Largely because of the cessation of paid work and child care, older Americans spend less time overall in productive activities. Women and men spend about equal time in productive activities, but women spend more of it in unpaid work and less of it in paid work. The difficulties with using paid work as the major indicator for describing productivity across the life span are discussed.     

Age differences in the strategic allocation of visual attention.

The allocation of visual spatial attention was investigated in two groups of adults, younger (n = 24; M = 19 yrs) and older (n = 24; M = 68 yrs). Two sequential target displays were presented on a computer screen. If a target letter appeared in Display 1, then observers were to identify a target letter in Display 2. Based on accuracy of Display 1 target detection, the older adults had a more restricted range of visual processing than the younger adults. Based on reaction times for Display 2 target identification, older adults appeared to use a spotlight (serial) scanning mechanism, whereas younger adults appeared to use an activity-distribution (parallel) mechanism. Results are consistent with age-related cognitive slowing, but also suggest a difference in strategy according to the availability of visual information.     

Age differences in on-line syntactic processing

Reading time and comprehension for subject-relative (e.g., The pilot that admired the nurse dominated the conversation) and object-relative (e.g., The pilot that the nurse admired dominated the conversation) constructions were compared among younger and older readers. Younger adults, but not older adults, differentially allocated time to the more taxing object-relative constructions. Although there were no age differences in comprehension of subject-relative constructions, older adults demonstrated lower levels of comprehension for object-relative sentences. Inconsistent with a modularity view positing preservation in "interpretive" processes with age, these results suggest that age-related differences in working-memory capacity limit responsiveness to text demands, thus compromising sentence comprehension.     

Age differences in memory for movement

Two experiments were conducted. The purpose of the first experiment was to determine whether memory deficits for movement occur with age. The 52 subjects for Experiment 1 were placed in four age groups: 18-32; 33-47; 48-62; and 63-77. Tests were administered to determine each subject's ability to encode and recall as many as 12 consecutive linear movement lists. When minimal memory requirements were imposed, there was no significant difference in the ability of the older and younger subjects to immediately recall movements. Older subjects, however, could not recall movements as well as younger subjects when greater memory demands were placed on them. Experiment 2 was conducted to determine why memory impairments occurred in older subjects. Organizational schemes were imposed on the subjects, but age differences were still apparent when greater memory requirements were essential or a larger memory capacity was demanded.     

Age differences in information acquisition strategies

The physiological basis of hypothesized adult age increases in the persistence of stimuli was studied in 16 young (X age 19.1 years) and 16 old (X age 70.1 years) male and female subjects. Changes in CFF threshold and skin conductance were measured as a function of loud white noise activation and artificial pupil. CFF was significantly lower in the old group and with artificial pupil in both age groups. Significant effects were also found for activation x sex and activation x age x sex. Skin conductance change was significant for activation, activation x sex, artificial pupil x age, artificial pupil x order and artificial pupil x order x activation. The results were interpreted as supporting an overarousal basis of an age increase in stimulus persistence.     

Age differences in suprathreshold sensory function

While there is general agreement that vision and audition decline with aging, observations for the somatosensory senses and taste are less clear. The purpose of this study was to assess age differences in multimodal sensory perception in healthy, community-dwelling participants. Participants (100 females and 78 males aged 20–89 years) judged the magnitudes of sensations associated with graded levels of thermal, tactile, and taste stimuli in separate testing sessions using a cross-modality matching (CMM) procedure. During each testing session, participants also rated words that describe magnitudes of percepts associated with differing-level sensory stimuli. The words provided contextual anchors for the sensory ratings, and the word-rating task served as a control for the CMM. The mean sensory ratings were used as dependent variables in a MANOVA for each sensory domain, with age and sex as between-subject variables. These analyses were repeated with the grand means for the word ratings as a covariate to control for the rating task. The results of this study suggest that there are modest age differences for somatosensory and taste domains. While the magnitudes of these differences are mediated somewhat by age differences in the rating task, differences in warm temperature, tactile, and salty taste persist.     

Age differences in memory for movement

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted. The purpose of the first experiment was to determine whether memory deficits for movement occur with age. The 52 subjects for Experiment 1 were placed in four age groups: 18–32; 33–47; 48–62; and 63–77. Tests were administered to determine each subject's ability to encode and recall as many as 12 consecutive linear movement lists. When minimal memory requirements were imposed, there was no significant difference in the ability of the older and younger subjects to immediately recall movements. Older subjects, however, could not recall movements as well as younger subjects when greater memory demands were placed on them. Experiment 2 was conducted to determine why memory impairments occurred in older subjects. Organizational schemes were imposed on the subjects, but age differences were still apparent when greater memory requirements were essential or a larger memory capacity was demanded.     

Age differences in social network participation

Differences in participation in social networks were analyzed as a function of age, drawing on a theoretical model of substitution processes. Using an empirical approach from the study of participation in voluntary organizations, I separated the direct effects of age from indirect effects via age-based declines in resources. The results show that a substantial proportion of the age-based decrease in level of activity in social networks was due to declines in resources, but similar analyses for the sources of participation in networks showed effects of age that persisted after controlling for resources. These results point to some important distinctions among measures of social networks.