Steps toward the explanation of adult age differences in cognition

Abstract

Abstract Age-related differences have been documented in a wide variety of cognitive variables. Typical results are illustrated in Fig. 2.1 with data from a recent study involving 259 adults between 18 and 94 years of age (Salthouse, et al. 1996a). Note that roughly comparable age-related declines of about I to 1.5 standard deviation units are evident in variables representing perceptual speed (letter comparison and pattern comparison), episodic memory (paired associates and free reca11), inductive reasoning (series completion and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test number of categories), and spatial visualization (object assembly and block design) abilities. Similar patterns are apparent in many different data sets (e.g. Baltes and Lindenberger 1997; Horn 1982; Horn et al. 1981; Salthouse 1992b, 1993a, 1994a, 1996d; 1998; Salthouse et al. 1998; Schaie and Willis 1993), and thus these negative age relations can be viewed as the principal phenomenon in need of explanation by theories of cognitive aging. That is, any satisfactory theory in this area will ultimately need to account for the negative relations of age on a range of different cognitive variables. In order to be comprehensive, the theory should probably also explain why there are few or no age relations on other cognitive variables (e.g. those reflecting crystallized or product aspects of cognition largely reflecting knowledge acquired in the past), but at minimum it will need to provide an explanation for the age-related declines that have been reported across several kinds of cognitive variables.

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