Brain and Cognition 57 (2005) 4–7

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Executive functioning in normal aging: A study of action

planning using the Zoo Map Test
Philippe Allaina,b,c,*, Sylvie Nicoleaua,d, Karine Pinona,b,c, Frédérique Etcharry-Bouyxa,b,c,
Jean Barréa,d, Gilles Berruta,d, Frédéric Dubase, Didier Le Galla,b,c
a
Clinical and Research Center for Memory Disorders and Degenerative Diseases, University Hospital of Angers, France
b
Neuropsychological Unit, Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Angers, France
c
Laboratory of Psychology (UPRES EA 2646), University of Angers, France
d
Unit of Clinical Gerontology, Federation of Medicine, University Hospital of Angers, France
e
Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Angers, France

Accepted 12 August 2004

Abstract

A particularly important aspect of executive functioning involves the ability to form and carry out complex plans, that is to say
planning. This study aimed to investigate planning in 18 older and 16 younger normal participants using an ecological planning sub-
task derived from the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexecutive Syndrome test battery, the ‘‘Zoo Map Test.’’ There are two trials.
The first trial consists of a ‘‘high demand’’ version of the subtask in which the participants must plan in advance the order in which they
will visit designated locations in a zoo (formulation level). In the second, or ‘‘low demand’’ version, the participant is simply required to
follow a concrete externally imposed strategy to reach the locations to visit (execution level). The two-way ANOVAs mainly showed
more difficulties in elderly adults than in younger adults, more difficulties in formulation level than in execution level, and lastly a
greater difference between formulation and execution in older participants than in younger adults. These results suggest that elderly
participants have some problems developing logical strategies whereas they are able to execute complex predetermined plans.
Ó 2004 Published by Elsevier Inc.

Keywords: Aging; Executive functions; Planning

1. Introduction mainly include the frontal lobes of the brain. Postmor-

Studies on normal aging and cognitive functioning
commonly describe early and more pronounced age-re-
lated changes in executive functions compared to other
cognitive abilities (Andrès & Van Der Linden, 2000; Li-
bon et al., 1994). The term executive function refers to
many disparate functions (e.g., inhibition, shifting of
mental set, and abstract thinking) that act at the highest
levels of cognition to optimize performance on complex
laboratory or everyday tasks. These functions are all
presumed to be mediated by neuronal systems that
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: PhAllain@chu-angers.fr (P. Allain).
tem studies and neuroimaging studies have consistently
shown that the frontal area also deteriorates earlier
and more severely than other cerebral areas in healthy
adult aging (for a review, see Tisserand & Jolles,
2003). Consequently, many current neuropsychological
models propose that it is this frontal degradation that
is responsible for many age-related cognitive changes
(Daigneault, Braun, & Whitaker, 1992).
A particularly important aspect of executive function-
ing is planning. According to Luria (1978), planning is the
ability to organise behaviour in relation to a specific goal
that must be achieved through a series of intermediate
steps (see also Owen, 1997). The definition of planning
provided in cognitive psychology is quite similar. In fact,

0278-2626/$ - see front matter Ó 2004 Published by Elsevier Inc.

doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2004.08.011
 P. Allain et al. / Brain and Cognition 57 (2005) 4–7
planning is generally defined as the process of formulating
a sequence of operations intended for achieving some goal
(e.g., Hayes-Roth & Hayes-Roth, 1979). Cognitive psy-
chologists call the representation of this sequence a plan.
Recent theoretical models (Grafman, 1989; Shallice,
1982) suggest that planning can be described as a dou-
ble-level process: formulation and execution. The formu-
lation level relies on the ability to mentally develop a
logical strategy to predetermine the course of action
aimed at achieving a specific goal. The execution level
concerns the competence of monitoring and guiding the
execution of the plan to a successful conclusion.
Planning impairments in relation to frontal lobe dam-
age have already been investigated with numerous labo-
ratory tests such as the Tower of London task (Shallice,
1982) or with ecological paradigms such as the multiple
errands test (Shallice & Burgess, 1991), showing that
damage to the frontal cortex leads to deficits in the pa-
tientÕs ability to form and carry out complex plans in no-
vel and complex situations.
Whereas effects of frontal lobe lesions on planning
have been fairly well documented, only a small number
of studies have focused on planning performance in
healthy elderly participants, with partially conflicting re-
sults. For example, Brennan, Welsh, and Fisher (1997),
using the Tower of Hanoi planning task, have found dif-
ferences between young adults and elderly adults on the
four-disk version. In our study (Allain et al., 2002), we
found similar planning capacities between young adults
and elderly adults using the Tower of London planning
task. Studies using ecological tasks in healthy elderly
participants are rare, but results appear consistent. Using
a real-life simulation of activities of daily living (a kitch-
enette meal-preparation task), Godbout, Doucet, and
Fiola (2000) found that the elderly participants were im-
paired in the anticipation-planning dimension and on
shifting of attention between ongoing tasks. We observed
that older people performed poorly on a modified ver-
sion of the six-element test (Allain et al., 2002).
But the origin of such planning impairments remains
unclear. In other words, it has not yet been demonstrated
whether planning difficulties observed in elderly partici-
pants were due to an inability to mentally develop a logi-
cal strategy and/or to execute a predetermined plan. Thus,
this study aimed to investigate the nature of planning
impairments in a sample of normal elderly adults by the
means of an ecological task analysing and comparing the
formulation and execution levels of the planning process.
2. Methods
2.1. Participants
A group of 18 elderly adults (mean age = 80.3;
SD = 5.9; range = 72–97) and a group of 16 younger
5
adults (mean age = 28.6; SD = 10.8; range = 19–50)
participated in the study. All participants gave their in-
formed consent. Older adults had a lower educational le-
vel (mean number of years of schooling = 6.4; SD = 1.2;
range = 5–10) than younger adults (mean number of
years of schooling = 10.8; SD = 2.2; range = 9–17).
The elderly adults were 3 males, 15 females, the younger
adults comprised 9 males, and 7 females. The two
groups differed significantly as regards to educational le-
vel (t = 7.3, p = .0001) and sex (v2 = 5.8, p = .014). All
participants were free of known serious medical illness.
None of the participants had a history of neurological
or psychiatric illness. None of the younger and older
participants presented signs of global cognitive deterio-
ration as documented by the Mini Mental State Exami-
nation (score > 27/30). All participants were living
independently in the community.
2.2. Assessment of planning
Planning was assessed using an ecological subtask de-
rived from the Behavioural Assessment of the Dysexec-
utive Syndrome test battery (Wilson, Alderman,
Burgess, Emslie, & Evans, 1996): the ‘‘Zoo Map Test.’’
In this test, participants are given a map of a zoo and
a set of instructions relating to places they have to visit
(e.g., elephant house, lionÕs cage) and rules they must
stick to (e.g., starting at the entrance and finishing at a
designated picnic area, using designated paths in the
zoo just once). There are two trials. Although the aim
of the task is identical in each of these trials, the instruc-
tions given vary. In both trials, participants are required
to visit six out of the 12 possible locations. The first trial
consists of a ‘‘high demand’’ version of the task in which
the planning abilities of the participants are rigorously
tested. In fact, to minimise errors, the participants must
plan in advance the order in which the designated loca-
tions will be visited. Errors will occur if the participants
simply visit the locations in the order given in the
instructions. In the second, or ‘‘low demand’’ version,
the participant is simply required to follow some instruc-
tions to reach the proper locations and to produce an
error-free performance. The comparison of the perfor-
mances on the two trials permits an evaluation of the
participantÕs spontaneous planning ability when struc-
ture is minimal (Formulation Condition) versus ability
to execute a concrete externally imposed strategy when
structure is high (Execution Condition). In this study,
scoring was based on the sequencing score (to gain a se-
quence point, the places must be visited in the correct
order in the sequence), the total number of errors (this
category brought together various types of errors: paths
used more than once, deviations from the paths, failure
to make a continuous line, inappropriate places visited),
and the times taken to plan (thinking time) and execute
(drawing time) the routes.
6 P. Allain et al. / Brain and Cognition 57 (2005) 4–7
Table 1
Performances (means and standard deviations) of the young and elderly adults on the Zoo Map Test and statistical comparisons
Elderly adults
Formulation Execution
Thinking time (s) 53.9 (57.2) 8.9 (11.1)
Drawing time (s) 227.5 (89.9) 107.6 (54.2)
Sequencing score 4.9 (1.5) 0.1 (0.5)
Number of errors 3.3 (1.5) 0.3 (0.7)
3. Results
The elderly and young adults groups were compared
on all the dependent measures with ANOVAs using
Group as between factor and testing Condition (high-
demand/Formulation and low-demand/Execution ver-
sions) as the within factor. The significance threshold
for all analyses was set at p < .05. Because the two
groups were not matched by education level, the number
of years of schooling was entered as covariate in all sta-
tistical analyses. The results of the two groups are pre-
sented in Table 1, as well as statistical results.
As shown in Table 1, the majority of the ANOVAs
revealed the existence of a Group effect. Whatever the
Condition, drawing time was significantly longer for
the older participants than for younger adults; the total
number of errors was significantly higher for the elderly
group; and the difference between older adults and
younger controls was significant for the sequencing
score; however, in all conditions, thinking time was
not significantly longer for the older participants than
for the younger adults. All Condition effects were signif-
icant: whatever the Group, thinking and drawing times
were longer in the Formulation Condition, sequencing
score was lower in the Formulation Condition and par-
ticipants made more errors in the Formulation Condi-
tion. Lastly, ANOVAs revealed significant interactions
between Group and Condition: All the differences be-
tween Formulation and Execution were greater in older
participants than in younger adults.
4. Discussion
Both young adults and elderly participants performed
differently on the two versions of the planning subtask
used in this study, corroborating a separation between
formulation and execution levels of the planning pro-
cess. The results of the present study indicate that the
‘‘Zoo Map Test’’ might be a good test to assess these
two cognitive levels through in an ecologically valid
way.
These results demonstrate that normal older adults
manifest planning impairments. Moreover, this study
is the only one to date to show the nature of such
planning impairments. We propose that normal elderly
Young adults F/p values
Formulation Execution Group Condition Interaction
17.6 (19.9) 3.7 (2.1) 0.9/.35 14.7/.0003 4.1/.04
97.3 (67.9) 63.7 (32.6) 10.1/.002 23.1/.0001 7.3/.008
2.4 (1.8) 0 (0) 7.9/.006 152.3/.0001 16.5/.0001
0.7 (0.7) 0.1 (0.2) 8.5/.004 63.5/.0001 27.7/.0001
participants have more problems in predetermining a
complex course of action aimed at achieving some spe-
cific goal than in guiding the execution of complex se-
quences of actions to a successful conclusion. In other
words, normal aging affects more the capacity to men-
tally represent complex plans than the capacity to exe-
cute these plans. Further research is needed to better
explain this difficulty. In our opinion, this research
should especially investigate knowledge of action sche-
mata in normal elderly participants to know if their defi-
ciency in building internal representations is related to
impairments in these kinds of conceptual structures
(sequential and hierarchical aspects).
Lastly, with an increase in the aging population, the
demand for assessment of functional disability and
supervisory needs also increases. Several neuropsycho-
logical studies have already shown that functional
impairment is associated with executive dysfunction in
healthy elderly samples (Cahn-Weiner, Malloy, Boyle,
Marran, & Solloway, 2000). In consequence, it would
be very useful to examine the ability of the ecological
neuropsychological test used in this study to predict
functional status and to recommend care and treatment
options in older adults.
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