Centre for Policy on Ageing



Aging and the bridges of Konigsberg problem: no age changes in perseverance
Author(s)	Ian Stuart-Hamilton, Lorraine McDonald
Journal title	Educational Gerontology, vol 24, no 3, April/May 1998
Pages	pp 225-232
Keywords	Reasoning ; Mental speed ; Older people ; Young adults [20-25] ; United Kingdom.
Annotation	It is well documented that the ability to sustain attention at a task is preserved in later life, with little or no decrement in performance. However, the ability of non-clinical subjects to persevere at a problem-solving task has received less attention. In the UK experiment reported here, older volunteers tried to solve the Bridges of Konigsberg problem (a topological exercise that is impossible to solve). No age difference was found in the time spent on the task, nor was performance related to other benchmark variables, such as IQ test performance or length of education. Reasons for this, and the implications of the findings for educational gerontology, are discussed. (AKM).
Accession Number	CPA-980811221 A
Classmark	DC: DG: B: SD6: 8
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...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.