Younger and older adults select study items in an easy-to-difficult order, consistent with the region of proximal learning model¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · causal r2 · q3 · i3 large
Currency · newest study 2010 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? In Experiment 1, participants in both age groups selected easier items first and transitioned to more difficult items over subsequent selections. → Price 2010 q3 i3 In Experiment 2, both age groups and point orders showed a reliable linear easy-to-difficult selection trend. → Price 2010 (2)

Evidence¶

Price 2010¶

Price, Jodi; Hertzog, Christopher; Dunlosky, John. (2010). Self-Regulated Learning in Younger and Older Adults: Does Aging Affect Metacognitive Control? Neuropsychology, development, and cognition. Section B, Aging, neuropsychology and cognition. https://doi.org/10.1080/13825580903287941

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Experiment 1 with 64 younger and 31 older adults studying 72 Spanish-English pairs in eight 3x3 grids; selection order coded by normative difficulty. The article reports "participants in both age groups selected easier items first" with reliable age differences only at the third through sixth selections.

"Consistent with RPL predictions, Figure 1 shows that participants in both age groups selected easier items first, and then over the following selections slowly transitioned to selecting more difficult items."

Price 2010 (2)¶

Price, Jodi; Hertzog, Christopher; Dunlosky, John. (2010). Self-Regulated Learning in Younger and Older Adults: Does Aging Affect Metacognitive Control? Neuropsychology, development, and cognition. Section B, Aging, neuropsychology and cognition. https://doi.org/10.1080/13825580903287941

q3 · i3 · causal · r2

Experiment 2 (60 younger, 31 older adults) with manipulated point values and goals; selection order across the first six selections showed the printed linear trend "F (1, 46) = 97.28, p < .001, ηp2= .679".

"Individuals in both age groups and point orders (i.e., Easy First versus Difficult First) selected items in an easy to difficult order, as manifested in a reliable linear trend, F (1, 46) = 97.28, p < .001, ηp2= .679"

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Older adults allocate proportionally more study time to easy and medium items while younger adults allocate more to difficult items, yet older adults recall less despite studying more — related
• The achievement goal model's pattern of results holds for both younger and older adult age groups — related
• Older adults show no reliable deficit in assessing item difficulty (EOL accuracy) — related
• Point values and point order altered item selection and recall: Easy First order produced higher recall, and points increased goal pursuit but appeared to hurt recall — related
• Older adults restudy easy and medium items more than younger adults, and lower memory self-efficacy correlates with avoiding difficult items — related
• Training metacognitive self-regulation (self-testing plus selective restudy) produced greater paired-associate learning improvements in older adults than traditional encoding-strategy training when study was self-paced — related
• Judgments of learning are higher for easy than difficult items at all ages and increase with age, confirming the difficulty manipulation aligned with subjective difficulty — related
• Ramp task levels are ordered by difficulty: performance declines as the number of variables to set increases — related
• Study time allocation becomes more strategic with age: older learners allocate relatively more time to difficult items, and the easy-difficult allocation gap is larger in the untimed condition — related