Age and the perception of incomplete figures.

Three experiments are described. They investigated four possible explanations for the previously reported poorer performance of older adults relative to younger adults in accuracy of identifying incomplete figures: (1) a higher criterion on the part of older adults for producing a response; (2) a lesser familiarity on their part with the stimulus materials; (3) a less adequate knowledge of the information value of particular segments of the figure; (4) a less efficient utilization of partial information. The results of the experiments supported the fourth hypothesis and indicated that older adults are unable to utilize stimulus information as effectively as younger adults in making perceptual inferences.