| The goal of these studies was to investigate the role of processing resources (working memory, processing speed, and attentional interference), knowledge-based resources (education, vocabulary, and postformal reasoning) and health/well-being factors (depression, self-reported health and activity levels) in both abstract and practical problem-solving. In study 1, a battery of tasks was administered to 100 adults in 3 age groups: young, middle, and old. The modeling analyses revealed significant relationships between working memory, depression and self-reported health and the Twenty Questions task. There were significant relationships between working memory, processing speed, biological life events and the anagram task. There were significant relationships between working memory, vocabulary and the Everyday Problem-Solving task. Study 2 involved 96 subjects in 2 age groups (young and old) and focused on the role of working memory in both the Twenty Questions task (abstract) and the Everyday Problem-Solving task (practical) by manipulating the working memory information load. The second study was designed to estimate the impact of one cognitive resource, working memory, on both types of problem-solving. By manipulating the information load in the Twenty Questions task, age differences were non-significant in the low information load condition. Controlling for working memory capability in the high memory condition also reduced age differences. In the Everyday Problem-Solving task, the memory load manipulation failed to produce differences between low and high information conditions. There were also no age differences in task performance. Taken together, these studies confirm the existence of multiple determinants that simultaneously impact problem-solving performance for adults of all age groups. For practical problem-solving, the lack of age differences might be explained by the relationship between decreased working memory capability and increased vocabulary ability. The opposite effect of aging on these skills may provide a compensatory function that preserves and limits performance on the Everyday Problem-Solving task. |
