Older people are unable to accurately estimate their ability in reading maps, remaining attentive and pantomiming tool use, according to a first-of-its-kind study by Penn State's College of Medicine researchers.

"We were interested in why people with different brain disorders don't know why they have them," said Dr. Anna Barrett, assistant professor of medicine and neurology in the college of medicine and the study's principle investigator.

A common example is people with Alzheimer's disease. The victims won't know that they have a mental disorder until their family tells them, she said.

In the study, nine women and six men, each older than 75, were asked to estimate how they would perform on a series of four tests, naming objects, identifying objects, skilled movement and memory.

"A lot of people who are older say their memory is bad, but it is actually better than they estimate," Barrett said.

The study found that the subjects underestimated their ability to maintain memory, overestimated their visual spatial skills — which includes their judgments and skilled learned movements — and overestimated map reading. Subjects' estimations of memory, mood, vision and naming ability matched their actual performance.

Barrett said it is important to examine how accurately people perceive their abilities. People could feel discouraged if they overestimate their abilities and think they are doing worse when they are actually quite normal.

Kerri Hansell (junior-psychobiology), a student at Lebanon Valley College, was a project research assistant.

"I want to get into the neurology field, and this study allowed me to learn about the neurology field and the people involved," Hansell said.

Hansell feels that people learn more thoroughly through hands on work.

"You learn about the technical in school. You can't know what you have learned until you work with people," she said. "Working with people could be helpful or real hard. I loved it."

Barrett would like to extend the study and focus on middle-aged people and then extend it further to younger people. She suspects that younger people won't have any better estimates than their elders.