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

<p>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 </p>