Table 1: Cognitive test results and demographic characteristics of younger and older adults.

Characteristic Younger Older
Age range 18-30 60-80
Mean age in years 23.8 (2.3) 67.8 (5.3)
Animal naminga 30.81(5.96) 26.81 (7.15)
Picture completionb 3.81 (.98) 4.25 (1.00)
Digit Symbolb 90.12 (8.88) 62.31 (11.99) *
Word naming c 13.06 (4.34) 13.87 (3.72)
Digit spanb 18.75 (3.04) 16.31 (2.15) *
Similaritiesb 13.81 (1.32) 13.81 (2.4)
BMIS scoresd 8.18 (5.95) 10.68 (6.35)
Male/female (n) 4/12 5/11

Note. Standard deviations are in parentheses
a Task: Name as many animals as possible, time allowed: 1 min
blatest German version of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) [70, 71].
c Task: Name as many words as possible starting with the letter ‘l’, time allowed: 1 min
d Brief Mood Introspection Scale questionnaire (BMIS [72],) translated
into German. The mood rating for each participant was obtained by subtracting the scores
for negative mood from those of positive mood.
* Younger and older adults’ means differ significantly (t test, p < .05)