SOME EFFECTS OF AGE ON ADULT LEARNING WERE STUDIED IN A SERIES OF FOUR EXPERIMENTS ON THE FOLLOWING VARIABLES--(1) SUSCEPTIBILITY TO SET-INDUCING CONDITIONS, (2) ATTITUDES ABOUT A TOPIC, (3) PRIOR KNOWLEDGE, AND (4) LEARNING SPEED OR EFFECTS OF VARIED PRESENTATION RATES. A REPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE OF 211 SUBJECTS WAS SELECTED ON THE BASIS OF SEX, AGE, PARTICIPATION IN ADULT EDUCATION, AND SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS. IN MOST CASES, EACH SUBJECT TOOK THE STRONG VOCATIONAL INTEREST BLANK, THE POE INVENTORY OF VALUES, THE 48 ITEM COUNSELOR EVALUATION TEST, AND THE WESCHLER ADULT INTELLIGENCE SCALE. TEN DIFFERENT SETS OF STUDY MATERIAL, RELATIVELY UNFAMILIAR AND INTERESTING, WERE SELECTED. LINEAR PROGRAMED INSTRUCTION MATERIAL WAS OBTAINED FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA AND, AFTER REVISION, WAS ADMINISTERED TO THE SUBJECTS. RESULTS, WHICH SEEMED TO SHOW A CONSISTENCY ACROSS EXPERIMENTS, ARE DISCUSSED AND RELATED TO ADULT EDUCATION. THE MOST CONSISTENT RESULT WAS THE LACK OF APPARENT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGE OF THE SUBJECT AND PERFORMANCE ON ANY OF THE CRITERION MEASURES. THIS PROVIDED EVIDENCE THAT THE OLDER ADULT IS NOT NECESSARILY HANDICAPPED WHEN COMPETING WITH A YOUNG ADULT IN A LEARNING SITUATION. (JC)