The effect of stimulus material on card-sorting scores by two age groups was tested with stimuli varied by generational familiarity and complexity (redundancy). The 48 older adults performed at a level not significantly different from 48 young with non-redundant and stimuli appropriate to their age. Young Ss showed greater recognition errors with non-redundant stimuli of this generational quality than with redundant, currently familiar stimuli. Old Ss decrementally responded to redundancy in spire of the familiarity of the objects displayed. An interaction between historic familiarity and complexity is postulated.
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