ABSTRACT
Short-term performance data from a complex computerized cognitive test called SYNWORK1 were examined for age differences in transitory performance fluctuations in samples of 55 older and 57 younger adults. Profile analysis indicated that the older adults’ performance trajectories were essentially parallel to those of the younger adults’, but with the older adults performing at a consistently lower level on all four subtasks of SYNWORK1. These apparent age differences in level of performance were reduced substantially when a simple graphical approach was used to examine the performance trajectories. These results extend our knowledge concerning the nature of intraindividual variability while illustrating again some of the methodological inadequacies inherent in research comparing age differences in levels of cognitive performance when common statistical assumptions are even mildly violated. The competence of older adults can be underestimated based on a single measure of a group mean, thus leading to further risk of missing important learning strengths of older adults.
