Long-term Maintenance of Retest Learning in Young Old and Oldest Old Adults

This study examined the maintenance of retest learning benefi ts in young old and oldest old adults over an 8-month period in 3 cognitive abilities: reasoning, perceptual-motor speed, and visual attention. Twenty-four young old (aged 70 – 79 years, M = 74.2) and 23 oldest old adults (aged 80 – 90 years, M = 83.6) who participated in a previously published study (Yang, L., Krampe, R. T., & Baltes, P. B. [2006]. Basic forms of cognitive plasticity extended into the oldest-old: Retest learning, age, and cognitive functioning. Psychology and Aging, 21, 372 – 378) returned after an 8-month delay to complete 2 follow-up retest sessions. The results demonstrated that both young old and oldest old groups maintained about 50% of the original retest learning benefi ts. This extends the earlier fi ndings of substantial long-term cognitive training maintenance in young old adults to a context of retest learning with oldest old adults, and thus portrays a positive message for cognitive plasticity of the oldest old