Effects of age and naturally occurring experience on spatial visualization performance

One o[the most popular hypotheses proposed to account for the age-related declines observed with certain measures ofcog-nitive functioning attributes those declines to various forms of disuse or lack of practice. Although seldom articulated as an explicit theory, the following sample of quotations illustrates that this perspective has been implicitly accepted for more than half a century. A decrease in test ability among adults is probably caused by the fact that adults, as they grow older, exercise their minds less and less with the materials found in psychological tests. (Sorenson, 1 9 3 3, p. 7 3 6) The"losses " are in large measure.. a by-productofdisuse... old age acts selectively and most decidedly on those functions which have suffered for want of practice. (Sward, 1945, pp. 478-4'79) [ ] n one's own field where experience has been accumulating over a period of many years, there is little evidence for any decline with the years, at least until extreme old age is reached. (Gilbert, 1952, p. 1 3 0) Those who have spent their lives working with their hands and interpreting perceptual data retain the ability to deal with per-ceptual and constructional problems. (Wil l iams, 1960, pp. 217-218) [S]tudies ofthe functions ofthe organism within his own environ-ment show relatively small age-related ifferences or changes and in many cases advancing age is correlated with improvement. (Fozard & Thomas, 1975. p. I l7) [T]he declines that are observed in abilities which are used fre-quently appear to begin at a later age and to be less drastic than are the declines in abilities which are exercised less frequently. (Den-ney,1982, p.824