Adult Age Differences on Traditional and Practical Problem-Solving Measures

Abstract

Eighty-four adults between the ages of 20 and 79 were presented with two types of problem-solving tasks. One was a task that is typically used in problem-solving research and the other was a task composed of practical problems that adults might encounter in their daily lives. Performance on the two types of tasks exhibited different developmental functions across age. Performance on the traditional problem-solving task decreased linearly across age while performance on the practical problems increased to a peak in the 40- and 50-year-old groups and decreased thereafter. The results indicate that the developmental function obtained for problem-solving during the adult years depends on the type of problems that are presented. While performance on the abstract type of problems typically employed in research may decrease with age during the adult years, performance on practical problems may exhibit a different relationship with age.