How well do elderly people cope with uncertainty in a learning task?

The relation between age, task complexity and learning performance in a Mul tiple Cue Probability Learning task was studied by systematically varying t he level of uncertainty present in the task, keeping constant the direction of relationships. Four age groups were constituted: young adults (mean age = 21), middle-aged adults (45), elderly people (69) and very elderly peopl e (81). Five uncertainty levels were considered: predictability = 0.96, 0.8 0, 0.64, 0.48, and 0.32. All relationships involved were direct ones. A str ong effect of uncertainty on 'control', a measure of the subject's consiste ncy with respect to a linear model, was found. This effect was essentially a linear one. To each decrement in predictability of the task corresponded an equal decrement in participants' level of control. This level of decreme nt was the same, regardless of the age of the participant. It can be conclu ded that elderly people cope with uncertainty in probability learning tasks as well as young adults. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserve d. PsycINFO classification. 2343.