The information processing speed concerned with lots of external and internal factors. In this discussion, processing speed's relation with age was examined in the contrast between young group (mean age 23) and old group (mean age 71). The complexity of task, which was one of the external factors that influence the processing speed, was presented in a comparison of 3 levels. This investigation of processing speed was carried out through a computer program. Finally, it was accepted that the processing speed decreased with the developing of age.
It also decreased with the increasing of complexity of task.Introduction:Miller (1956) has provided a theoretical idea that is fundamental to the information-processing framework. This concept of information processing used the computer as a model for human learning. Like the computer, the human mind takes in information, performs operations on it to change its form and content, stores and locates it and generates reponses to it. Thus, processing involves gathering and representing information, or encoding; holding information or retention; and getting at the information when needed, or retrieval. The computer's processing speed decided part of its quality.
Therefore, the processing speed of human was vital to humanbeen.This time, the speed of processing spatial information will be examined in term of a cognitive ability. This ability varies for different individuals with different personality, intelligence, gender, and age, etc. It was also different for different information circumstances: such as the complexity of task content, how familiar the subject gets with the context, where the task takes on etc.The age-related slowing was supported by Surwillo (1968) who earlier suggested that the slower performing in the elderly might be explained by an age-related decrease in the speed of an internal timing mechanism responsible for coordinating neural activities. An investigation (S.
Rubichi, M. Neri, R. Nicoletti, 1999) compared the mean-reaction time performance of two groups of subjects (young vs. elderly), the results indicated that elderly are markedly slower than young subjects. This study asked subjects to identify the visual information through computer (mouse plus monitor).
Therefore, the target population for this investigation could only be people without blinding. Moreover, the sample for it is too small, which is 10 participants for each group.A study (O'Connor and Burns, 2003) found that the processing speed increases with the complexity of task. However, this study did not vary the complexity by change the context of the task. It grouped the tasks into different complexity levels by three timing ways: enough time-to give each individual enough time to complete the task, decision time-to represents the time required to make a simple decision and movement time--which is a psychomotor ability with minimal cognitive requirements. It predicted that the complexity would be a general rule for the processing speed but the results might be different for different complexities.
The aim of this study was to exam if there was any difference for young people and old people in term of processing speed, and to find out if the complexity of task would influence the speed of processing information. It was expected that young people would perform better than old people and the processing speed would quicker for less complexity task. Therefore, the hypothesis in this study is that there will be age-related slowing on processing speed and the processing speed will increase as the complexity of task decrease.MethodDesign:The design is RMD-Repeat Measure Design. This design was chosen for eliminating the individual differences in experiment.
It was expected to see difference of individuals' performances in different sets of level of complexity.The dependent variable was the processing speed. And there were two independent variables. Between participants, the IV was age. For the within participants, the IV was complexity of task.
Controls that used in this investigation are listed below:Use of standardized procedure/instructionsThe use of a reliable measurement instrument (computer program)Control of timeParticipants:Participants are chosen from the 2nd year students who are learning applied psychology in JMU via opportunity design plus participants that from university of third age (an organization for elder people). There were 192 participants which consisted of 55males and 137 females. The age of participants extended from 19-83 years old. There were 150 participants in the young group. They ranged from 19-50 years old and the average age was 23.
47. There were 42 participants during age 51-83. The average age for them was 71.10 years old.
Material/Apparatus:Computer and recording sheet. The computer program presented participants tasks from the lowest level of complexity to the most difficult one. The tasks in each complexity level were limited in the same time. Since the come up, the data was recorded on the recording sheet.
Procedure:This investigation was carried out in combine with several other studies: word fluency, sleeping quality, and current emotion status, etc. In this discussion, the procedure of the processing speed of tasks in different level of complexity would present. First of all, participants were required to fill in a form with the basic information: name, gender, age, date of birth, testing date, and testing place, etc. In addition, subjects would run a computer program.
In this program, participants were asked to identify if the pair of pattern in the screen are the same or not by typing in "z" and "/". The time for the identification was limited. The easiest task was presented in the first and the other two groups of pattern would be presented immediately one after another. After the testing, all the data would be collected by the researchers.
They would do the further analysis.Ethics:Each participant's arousal ability which reflected by the testing should be confidential.Result:A mixed test was chosen in this case. The aim was to find out both between and within participants effects.The Descriptive Statistics table (table 1 in the appendix) showed that the complexity increases gradually as the correct number decrease.
This meant that the processing speed decrease as well. Moreover, in each task, the young group performed better than the old group.Discussion:The hypothesis was accepted.Results showed that the mean correct numbers for the young group in all of the three levels of complexity were more then the correct numbers for the old group. This supported the theory of age-related slowing which proposed by Surwillo (1968).
It was also consistent with the study of Rubichi et al (1999). However, it should be noticed that although the sample of present research is much bigger than Rubichi (1999)'s study, it was still not big enough to represent the whole population. Another reason that this sample could not represent the normal population was that it was not the modeling of the normal population. The gender of the participants was not balance (55 males vs. 137 females).
Maccoby and Jacklin (1974) argued that boys processing information quicker then girls. Therefore, the unbalancing of gender in the research might influence the final result.In addition, it was clear from the result that the number of correct identification decreased as the tasks became complex. This supported the study of O'Connor and Burns (2003) at the point of processing speed increasing as the complexity of task decreasing. O'Connor and Burns examined the processing speed by controlling the time. This method ensured the coherence of the content of the tests, but it might bring press to the participants.
The real ability of processing information might be influenced hence. On the other hand, to exam the influence of complexity by changing the content of tests in a certain period would bring less press about the time.It was interesting that the difference between the easiest tests and the second tests were less than the one between the second tests and the most complex test. This rule could apply to each of the group and the odds between these two. Therefore, it guessed that the more complex of the task, the less difference between the two age groups, and the less difference of the odds of the test with participant. However, the study that supported this proposition was rare.
It was expected to see more research in this aspect.The results of this research can be implicated widely. It is good evidence to convince society that old people need more time to processing information. This fact should be considered in the designing of traffic signal, community facility, and caring of old people etc. The fact that the processing speed decreasing as the complexity of task increasing can be employed in the education.
People's ability of processing information might drop a little bit as they enter a relatively difficult stage. This drop especially for children should not be blamed. It also should be taken account into the education for older people.All in all, processing speed was an age-related slowing ability. People with difficulty in the information processing should be offered more conveniences.
