Technology for Adaptive Aging (2004) / Chapter Skim
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Part II: Overview Papers -- 2 Cognitive Aging
Part II: Overview Papers -- 2 Cognitive Aging
Pages 41-63
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Part II Overview Papers
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The study of cognitive aging has followed two rather distinct traditions. The first grew out of experimental child psychology, whereas the second derived from psychometric roots that included the assessment of intellectual competence and development in normal and abnormal populations.
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designs and how investigators should address the role of response speed. Age-Comparative Versus Age-Change Designs The bulk of reported findings from the experimental cognitive aging literature is based on age-comparative studies that usually contrast a group of young adults (typically college students)
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Figure 2-1 provides an illustration of this for the case of age differences and age changes from 25 to 81 years for a measure of verbal meaning Verbal Meaning -ScoresT Mean Age FIGURE 2-1 Comparison of cross-sectional age differences and longitudinal age changes on the Verbal Meaning Test. T-scores are standardized scores with a mean of 50 and a standard deviation of 10.
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The Role of Individual Differences Although empirical findings on age differences or age changes suggest virtually linear declines for many cognitive functions, it is difficult to reproduce linear decline patterns at the individual level. Indeed, it appears that there are many different aging patterns of which linear decline
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. 80 60 opulationP of 40 ercentageP 20 0 Declining Stable Gaining Change Over 7 Years FIGURE 2-2 Percentage of individuals who decline, remain stable, or gain significantly on the Verbal Meaning Test (criterion for significant decline or gain is ±1 standard error of measurement)
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Age-related deficits in visual acuity become more severe when there is low luminance or low-contrast stimuli. Figure 2-3 shows the agerelated increase in the percentage of people requiring correction for visual defects and the percentage of those who suffer from cataracts, glaucoma, or other visual impairments (National Center for Health Statistics, 1994)
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Color constancy mechanisms remain relatively intact in older adults, possibly minimizing performance decrements on real-world tasks. Motion perception.
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Particularly severe age-related decrements in speech intelligibility occur when there is background noise, echo, and time compression. Figure 2-4 shows the percentage decrement in speech intelligibility under various conditions from the 20s to the 80s (Bergman et al., 1976)
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normal speech; (2) speeded speech, twice the normal rate; (3)
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Technology will therefore be needed that provides for far more user-friendly methods to fine-tune hearing aids than are currently available. BASIC FINDINGS FROM THE EXPERIMENTAL LITERATURE ON COGNITIVE AGING Much of the literature on cognitive aging is cross sectional in nature and frequently includes convenience samples of young adults (often sophomore psychology students)
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. On the other hand, attention deficits have not been found to underlie age differences in episodic memory that involve remembering items associated with a specific time or place (Nyberg, Nilsson, Olofsson, and Bäckman, 1997)
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Normal Populations Investigations of the course of intellectual competence over the adult life span in normal populations has been dominated by research either with the Wechsler Intelligence Scale or with ability batteries derived from the Thurstonian Primary Mental Ability framework (Schaie, 1996b; Schaie and Hofer, 2001)
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For example, for the time frame shown there has been a positive linear cohort trend for inductive reasoning, the basic component of most problem-solving tasks, whereas there has been a negative trend in numeric skills. The magnitude of cohort differences in abilities over the past half-century has been comparable to the average age changes observed from young adulthood into the 70s (cf.
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. However, many measures designed for the identification of cognitive impairment and the diagnosis of the dementias are not particularly suitable for the study of cognitive aging because they were
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Research is in progress in my laboratory to extend a neuropsychological battery into the primary mental ability space so as to facilitate the use of assessment instruments with wider ranges that are suitable for younger adults for the purpose of early detection of cognitive impairment (Schaie et al., in press)
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CAN COGNITIVE AGING BE SLOWED OR REVERSED? Cognitive training programs have been developed in a number of laboratories (primarily in the United States and Germany)
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Cognitive training paradigms may therefore be helpful in enhancing the cognitive infrastructures required for the successful utilization of complex technology. OTHER RELATED TOPICS IN COGNITIVE AGING Research on cognitive aging in the past has been largely concerned with age-related aspects of the development of the basic processes of cognition.
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FUTURE DIRECTION It is to be expected that much future research in cognitive aging will be directed toward detecting the neural substrates of cognitive processes over the adult life span. An essential element of such research, however, will be to attend to change over time within individuals, as much of what has been done thus far is largely limited to cross-sectional studies (Albert and Killiany, 2001)
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. Emergence of a powerful connection between sensory and cognitive functions across the adult life span: A new window to the study of cognitive aging?
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. Extending neuropsychological assessments into the primary mental ability space.
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. Cognitive training in the normal elderly.
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