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AGE AND BEHAVIOR: LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE - STIMULUS PACING - SELF-PACING

Among the first studies demonstrating this was one carried out by Canestrari (1963). He presented older adults (60-69 years) and younger ones (17-35 years) with paired associates for learning, and he presented these with three different stimulus-pacing schedules. He had a fast pace where the stimuli were presented at the rate of 1.5 seconds, a medium pace where the stimuli were paced at 3.0 seconds, and a condition in which the subject paced himself. In the latter schedule, the subject was taught to control the apparatus so that he could get as much time for studying the stimulus and for responding to it as he desired.
Canestrari reported that in comparing the old and young adults, the old were relatively poorest in their learning performances with the fastest stimulus pacing, and they showed least deficit with self-pacing. These results demonstrated that much of the age deficit in the ability to form new associations, as seen in previous studies, is attributable to stimulus pacing factors.
Canestrari (1963) wrote:
‘The most obvious feature of the self-paced schedule is that it allows the subject to spend as much time as is necessary in studying the pair as well as in making a response . . . both groups of subjects utilized the time in making the response to the stimulus word rather than in studying the pair ... no young subject and only eight of the [30] older subjects [and then only rarely] stopped the drum in order to gain additional time to study the pair. It seems evident that an important determinant of the enhancing effect of self-pacing is the amount of time available for making a response to the stimulus word.’
Canestrari's study, therefore, demonstrated that it takes more time for older people than for younger ones to express their newly learned information. They need more time to show what they have learned; otherwise, it appears as if they have not learned it well, or have not learned it at all.
Canestrari demonstrated yet another dimension of this extra time needed by older people. It has been seen in several prior studies that, when older people make errors, very often it is the result of not responding in the situation (errors of omission) rather than by responding incorrectly (errors of commission). In other chapters in this book, the errors of omission have been discussed in the context of a cautiousness on the part of elderly people. The omission error from a different perspective will be discussed later, again under the heading "Cautiousness," but regardless of the interpretation that may be given this type of error, Canestrari reported that slower stimulus pacing schedules reduce this type of error of the elderly, not their errors of commission.
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