Cautiousness and verbal learning in adulthood

Twenty-two young (age 17-21) and 22 old (age 60-74) men and women participated in an investigation designed to determine the extent to which age differences in omission errors and performance in a serial learning task are accounted for by cautiousness. Age differences were found on the measures of cautiousness, and verbal learning, with young adults, making more correct responses and proportionately fewer omission errors on the learning task and taking greater risks on the risk-taking tasks. The results indicated that cautiousness measures accounted for age differences in omission errors but not in performance.