Table 1.
Participant Characteristics
| Young Adults | Older Adults | Age difference | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Variable | M | SD | M | SD | p |
| Age | 30.9 | 5.6 | 72.6 | 6.7 | <.001 |
| Education | 16.6 | 1.8 | 16.3 | 1.9 | .47 |
| SF36 Physical Health | 47.6 | 3.9 | 41.6 | 5.9 | <.001 |
| SF36 Mental Health | 41.0 | 5.1 | 46.8 | 5.7 | <.001 |
| Vocabulary | 52.2 | 7.8 | 55.7 | 6.4 | .03 |
| Digit-Symbol Substitution | 90.2 | 17.0 | 67.3 | 13.6 | <.001 |
| Plus-Minus Task | 22.1 | 16.7 | 33.8 | 24.5 | .02 |
| Stroop | 9.5 | 5.0 | 19.0 | 7.5 | <.001 |
| Systolic Blood Pressure | 120.8 | 12.4 | 126.4 | 14.4 | .08 |
| Diastolic Blood Pressure | 77.0 | 9.6 | 71.6 | 9.2 | .02 |
| Heart Rate | 78.6 | 10.9 | 73.7 | 12.9 | .08 |
Note: Plus-Minus scores reflect difference betwee time to complete page of alternating operations and that for a page of single operation arithmetic problems. Stroop scores reflect the difference between the time taken to name a page full of incongruent stimuli and that for a page of congruent stimuli.