COMPARISON OF THE PERFORMANCE OF YOUNGER AND OLDER ADULTS ON 3 VERSIONS OF A PUZZLE REPRODUCTION TASK

Objectives. Because constructional ability is a crucial perceptual-mot or skill that relates to daily functioning, it should be accurately as sessed in clients with neurological dysfunction. This study examined t hree versions of the Puzzle Reproduction task (a constructional abilit y task) of the Loewenstein Occupational Therapy Cognitive Assessment ( LOTCA) in order to determine whether a reduced-detail version of the t ask would be easier (i.e., require less time to complete) than the ori ginal version and whether a subplacement version would be more difficu lt to perform (i.e., require more time to complete) than the original version. In addition, the study examined whether older adult subjects would perform more slowly than younger adult subjects. Method. Seventy -two right-handed adults with no disabilities were divided into two ag e groups: 18 to 30 years old (n = 36) and 58 to 70 years old (n = 36). Each subject was tested on one of three versions of the LOTCA Puzzle Reproduction task (i.e., original, subplacement simplified). Results. For the older subjects, the simplified version of the task required si gnificantly less time than the original version, although there was no t a significant time difference between the original and subplacement versions. For the younger subjects, the subplacement version required significantly more time than the original version, but there was no si gnificant time difference between the original and simplified versions . Results also indicated that older subjects took significantly longer to perform all three versions of the task than did the younger subjec ts. Conclusion. The findings support the use of the simplified version of the LOTCA Puzzle Reproduction task with older adults or with perso ns with major cognitive-perceptual difficulties. Further studies of th e level of difficulty of the subplacement version are needed to examin e whether this version is more sensitive to constructional deficits in a sample of persons with neurological impairments because even mild c onstructional deficits have been shown to relate to disabilities in da ily functioning.