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Mental Exercise and Mental Aging Evaluating the Validity of the “Use It or Lose It” Hypothesis
Abstract
It is widely believed that keeping mentally active will prevent age-related mental decline. The primary prediction of this mental-exercise hypothesis is that the rate of age-related decline in measures of cognitive functioning will be less pronounced for people who are more mentally active, or, equivalently, that the cognitive differences among people who vary in level of mental activity will be greater with increased age. Although many training studies, and comparisons involving experts, people in specific occupations, and people whose mental activity levels are determined by their self-reports, have found a positive relation between level of activity and level of cognitive functioning, very few studies have found an interactive effect of age and mental activity on measures of cognitive functioning. Despite the current lack of empirical evidence for the idea that the rate of mental aging is moderated by amount of mental activity, there may be personal benefits to assuming that the mental-exercise hypothesis is true.
© 2006 Association for Psychological Science.
... These ageing trajectories can differ based on starting level and on change over time. Salthouse (2006) distinguishes between differential preservation and preserved differentiation when examining patterns of successful ageing. Differential preservation refers to the extent that individuals can maintain certain outcomes despite the ageing process depending on a third variable (i.e., mental capacity declines further for people with little mental stimulation when they age compared to people with a lot of mental stimulation). ...
... Therefore, based on the JD-R model and previous research it is expected that high levels of job demands will be predictive of trajectories that deviate negatively from the common trajectory of perceived work ability and the motivation to work amongst older workers, whereas high levels of job resources will be predictive of trajectories that deviate positively from the common trajectory amongst older workers. More specifically, we expect to see both patterns of differential preservation and preserved differentiation (Salthouse, 2006) when examining the influence of job demands and job resources on outcomes related to successful ageing at work over time. Differential preservation results from the starting levels of job demands and resources (i.e., baseline reserve capacity). ...
... Odds ratios for the different classes of motivation to continue working in the current job compared to the decreasing from high motivation class. In line with the preserved differentiation hypothesis (e.g., several groups of work ability have different starting levels but these differences remain stable over time; Salthouse, 2006), we found two work ability trajectories and one motivation to work trajectory that show similar development over time but at lower starting levels. For work ability, these trajectories with similar development over time compared to the common trajectory covered the majority of remaining workers (approximately 28 % of the respondents), meaning that for work ability we mainly found a pattern of preserved differentiation. ...
In order to age successfully at work, people need to maintain or improve their work ability and motivation to work. This implies a process that develops over time and can differ substantially between individuals. This study investigated whether different trajectories of perceived work ability and motivation to work can be distinguished between older employees over time and to what extent job demands and job resources are predictive of these different trajectories. We applied growth mixture modelling amongst 5799 employees of 45 years and older at four time points. We found five distinct groups of older workers that differed in their trajectories of perceived work ability and four types of groups of older workers that differed in their trajectories of their motivation to work. Higher levels of physical demands, mental demands, autonomy, supervisor support, and colleague support were less common in unfavourable trajectories. This study gives Human Resource Management practitioners insight into how jobs should be designed to stimulate successful ageing at work.
... Defined broadly as "understanding, evaluating, using and engaging with written text to participate in society, to achieve one's goals and to develop one's knowledge and potential" (OECD, 2012a, p. 20), literacy skill allows adults to make sense of and utilize resources and information found in written texts for coping with job-related or practical matters. According to the "use-it-or-lose-it" hypothesis proposed by Salthouse (2006), staying mentally active and prepared will help maintain one's cognitive functioning and thus prevent cognitive decline. In this context, skills proficiency and utilization can reinforce and complement each other (Punksungka et al., 2021). ...
... Recently, skills underutilization has been known as a widespread concern for both employees and companies in today's increasingly complex and competitive world of work (Desjardins & Warnke, 2012;OECD, 2013). Accordingly, some studies paid particular attention to the utilization of skills under the "use-it-or-lose-it" hypothesis (Salthouse, 2006). In short, the more employees use their skills in their tasks, the more likely they participate in adult education to continue to develop their occupational potential, and vice versa (Desjardins & Warnke, 2012). ...
... Positive effect: the more participation in AET, the more likely higher skills utilization (Tikkanen & Nissinen, 2018) and the less likely skills shortage or deficit mismatch (Desjardins & Rubenson, 2011) -'use-it-orlose-it' (Salthouse, 2006) and intellectual challenge (Desjardins & Warnke, 2012) hypotheses. ...
With the recent shifts in the global economy, many scholars and policymakers are in broad agreement on the importance of lifelong learning practices in the occupational sphere. In response, there has been growing academic interest in adult education participation in which working adults acquire knowledge and skills to fulfill the ever-changing needs of the world of work. Many researchers have revealed that participating in adult education provides a wide array of benefits for individuals, organizations, and society. Yet, despite the increased research efforts, empirical findings are still inconclusive on what contextual factors most decisively or relatively importantly contribute to determining and patterning working adults’ participation in adult education. In this context, this study is conducted to present a holistic picture of adult education participation. To that end, the purpose of this study is to re-examine the determinants and patterns of adult education participation of working adults by leveraging emerging analytic techniques to capture population-level insights on (1) what drives participation in adult education and (2) how discrete patterns in adult education participation emerge.
The data is drawn from the 2017 U.S. Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). The total sample size was 1,283 respondents aged 25 to 65 years old who had work experience in the last 12 months. Outcome measures were formal adult education and training (AET), non-formal AET, and informal learning, all of which indicate three major pillars of adult education participation. The selected 19 independent variables represent working adults’ individual-level (i.e., demographic information, human capital, and learning-related socio-psychological states) and work-related contexts. Through the random forest classifiers (RFCs) technique, one of the machine learning algorithms, this study identified important factors associated with participation in adult education. In addition, latent class analysis (LCA) was applied to investigate discrete patterns of adult education participation among sub-groups of working adults that share similar profiles of individual-level and work-related characteristics.
According to the results obtained from RFCs models, first, skills proficiency and/or utilization appeared to be the far most critical influencers across every type of adult education participation. Second, education level and monthly income were the common salient predictors across types of adult education participation. Third, predictors explaining adult education participation somewhat varied depending on the types of adult education. By applying the LCA approach, this study identified four latent classes of working adults in adult education participation: (1) low-participation learners, (2) high-participation learners, (3) informal learners, and (4) structured learners. Moreover, the results demonstrated that the broader separation of working adults’ participation in adult education itself was strongly affected by situational and institutional contexts, whereas individual preference or selection across types of adult education relies on personal demographics and human capital. Based on the findings, this study concluded with several discussions and implications for research, policy, and practice.
... First, episodic recall tests and semantic verbal fl uency are sensitive to cognitive aging (Souchay et al. 2000;Tomer/Levin 1993). Second, recall and verbal fl uency refl ect two key dimensions of cognitive performance separately, namely fl uid intelligence/working memory and crystallized intelligence/knowledge (Arpino/Bordone 2014;Salthouse 2006;Weber et al. 2017). ...
... Crystallized intelligence refers to an individual's store of knowledge and learned operation; fl uid intelligence refers to the ability to think logically and solve novel problems independently of acquired knowledge, and is highly related to working memory (Nisbett et al. 2012;Arpino/Bordone 2014;Salthouse 2006;Horn/Cattell 1967;Jaeggi et al. 2008). Third, the temporal orientation in SHARE had a skewed distribution and thus was strongly affected by ceiling and fl oor effects. ...
... Further studies are needed to investigate other parameters of cognitive function. However, our assessments of recall and verbal fl uency can be regarded as two key dimensions of intelligence, fl uid intelligence/working memory, and crystallized intelligence/ knowledge (Arpino/Bordone 2014;Salthouse 2006;Weber et al. 2017). Third, as an observational study without a causal identifi cation strategy, no causal relationship can be provided. ...
With populations rapidly aging, the development over time in the cognitive function among the elderly approaching or reaching retirement is important for successful aging at work and planning pension policies. However, few studies in this field focus on this age group. This study characterizes time trends in cognitive function among 55-69-year-old Europeans from 2006 to 2015, and compares these trends by region, gender, and education. This study analyzes 40,689 subjects in Waves 2, 4, 5 and 6 of the Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) covering ten countries. Cognitive function was measured by Recall and Verbal Fluency. Educational levels were classified by quartiles. A Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) model was used to explore the association between cognitive function and development over time after controlling for confounders. Further stratification analysis using GEE models was conducted, stratified by region, gender and education. Cognitive function improved significantly in southern and central Europe over the observed timeframe, whereas it did not in northern Europe. Those with relative low levels of formal education displayed the most rapid increases in cognitive function in southern and central Europe. Among those with lower education in southern Europe, males’ cognitive function improved more quickly than females’. The improvement of cognitive function at ages 55-69 in southern and central Europe may contribute to continuing engagement with productive activities in old age. Educational interventions for people with lower levels of education may be most effective in achieving such engagement. This paper extends the literature on the development over time in the cognitive function among the elderly close to retirement age in Europe by analysing southern, central and northern Europe, as well as differences by region, gender and education. The results may provide evidence for planning pension policies and educational interventions.
... In the current study, we address these issues using data from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936, an extensively-phenotyped, community-dwelling sample of older adults in Scotland, for whom there are comprehensive cognitive data collected at five timepoints across later life (age [70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82], cognitive ability scores from early-life, and data on a wide range of potential covariates (see Box 1 for a summary of study characteristics). Trajectories of cognitive function were evaluated using latent growth curve (LGC) modelling for four major domains of cognitive ability-visuospatial ability, processing speed, and memory (characterising fluid intelligence), and verbal ability (characterising crystallised intelligence). ...
... intercept, age 70) and trajectories of change (i.e. slope, age [70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82] in cognitive functioning across all five waves of testing. Participants were included in the analytic sample even if they attended baseline-only, as the estimates for intercept (i.e. ...
... Predictors of cognitive level and slope. Next, we fit both univariate and multivariate risk factor models to the cognitive data to address which factors might contribute to individual differences in cognitive level (age 70) and slope (age [70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82]. First, univariate LGC models were fit to test the associations of each life-course predictor (alongside age and sex) with each cognitive domain, i.e. without the other variables present in the model. ...
Discovering why some people’s cognitive abilities decline more than others is a key challenge for cognitive ageing research. The most effective strategy may be to address multiple risk factors from across the life-course simultaneously in relation to robust longitudinal cognitive data. We conducted a 12-year follow-up of 1091 (at age 70) men and women from the longitudinal Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 study. Comprehensive repeated cognitive measures of visuospatial ability, processing speed, memory, verbal ability, and a general cognitive factor were collected over five assessments (age 70, 73, 76, 79, and 82 years) and analysed using multivariate latent growth curve modelling. Fifteen life-course variables were used to predict variation in cognitive ability levels at age 70 and cognitive slopes from age 70 to 82. Only APOE e4 carrier status was found to be reliably informative of general- and domain-specific cognitive decline, despite there being many life-course correlates of cognitive level at age 70. APOE e4 carriers had significantly steeper slopes across all three fluid cognitive domains compared with non-carriers, especially for memory (β = −0.234, p < 0.001) and general cognitive function (β = −0.246, p < 0.001), denoting a widening gap in cognitive functioning with increasing age. Our findings suggest that when many other candidate predictors of cognitive ageing slope are entered en masse, their unique contributions account for relatively small proportions of variance, beyond variation in APOE e4 status. We conclude that APOE e4 status is important for identifying those at greater risk for accelerated cognitive ageing, even among ostensibly healthy individuals.
... Our approach adds to existing knowledge by implementing methodological strengths, such as: an aggregate LA frequency score comprising of a range of common activities that reflect real-life experience; concomitantly addressing specific LA components defined based on previous works (Salthouse, 2006;Scarmeas et al., 2001;Verghese et al., 2003) and tested in a confirmatory analysis; robust measurement of cognitive abilities well established to change with aging (Habeck et al., 2016;Salthouse et al., 2015); inclusion of multiple cognitive tasks for each cognitive ability predefined statistically; use of latent change score modeling to calculate cognitive scores at baseline and follow-up; and controlling for critical demographics in addition to age and gender, such as education and SES. Critically, we are the first to test cognitive reserve vs. brain maintenance mechanisms when examining LA-cognitive change associations, and the exploration of gender and age moderation adds to the limited research on the potential moderators of these associations. ...
... Intellectual LA was defined by six items (range 0-12) that reflect intellectually demanding activities and activities that engage cognition through art or music. Art and music activities have been considered cognitively demanding at a similar level to other typical intellectual LAs (Salthouse, 2006) and have specific effects on cognitive performance (Verghese et al., 2003;Yu et al., 2020). Social LA was defined by six items (range 0-12) including activities that typically involve some level of social interaction. ...
... Interestingly, our finding was consistent across these cognitive domains with effect sizes ranging from medium (vocabulary) to large (reasoning and speed). Our findings support the cognitive reserve framework, in line with the differential preservation hypothesis (Salthouse, 2006), stating that above and beyond several demographic characteristics and differential brain change, an active lifestyle confers protective effects on cognitive functioning and helps individuals to cope better with aging. ...
Objective
To examine the association between leisure activity (LA) frequency and cognitive trajectories over 5 years across adulthood, and whether gender and age moderate these associations.
Method
A total of 234 cognitively healthy adults (21–80 years) completed a LA questionnaire at baseline and neuropsychological measures at baseline and after 5 years. Latent change score analysis was applied to generate latent variables estimating changes in different cognitive domains. For a secondary analysis, LA components’ scores were calculated, reflecting cognitive-intellectual, social, and physical activities. Regression analysis examined the association between baseline LA and cognitive change, and potential moderation of gender and age. In addition, we tested the influence of cortical gray matter thickness on the results.
Results
We found that higher LA engagement was associated with slower cognitive decline for reasoning, speed, and memory, as well as better vocabulary across two time points. Regarding LA components, higher Social-LA and Intellectual-LA predicted slower rates of cognitive decline across different domains, while Physical-LA was not associated with cognitive change. Gender, but not age, moderated some of the associations observed. Our results remained the same after controlling for cortical gray matter thickness.
Conclusions
We demonstrated a protective effect of LA engagement on cognitive trajectories over 5 years, independent from demographics and a measure of brain health. The effects were in part moderated by gender, but not age. Results should be replicated in larger and more diverse samples. Our findings support cognitive reserve hypothesis and have implications for future reserve-enhancing interventions.
... One set of concurrent hypotheses, developed by Salthouse, aims at clarifying the mechanisms underlying the relationship between the level of mental activity and cognitive functioning (Salthouse, 2006;Salthouse, Babcock, Skovronek, Mitchell, & Palmon, 1990). The first hypothesis, coined the differential preservation hypothesis, proposes that, in younger age, highly active and less cognitively active individuals do not differ. ...
... This hypothesis requires that an interaction between age and group be found, meaning that group differences should increase with age, with highly active individuals showing maintained or improved performance over time, and less active individuals showing decreased performance over time. The second possibility, coined the preserved differentiation hypothesis (Salthouse, 2006;Salthouse et al., 1990), is that the difference in performance is preserved over the lifespan. This hypothesis requires that a main effect of group be found in the absence of a group by age interaction, meaning that highly active individuals maintain a stable advantage over less active individuals throughout their lifespan. ...
... The first hypothesis was that performance in all domains would be lower in older compared to younger adults. The second hypothesis was that singing would show a positive association with auditory discrimination and executive functions, with an interaction between Age and Group, consistent with the differential preservation hypothesis (Salthouse, 2006). Specifically, we expected to find a negative relationship between executive functions and age, and that this relationship would be stronger in non-singers than singers. ...
The notion that lifestyle factors, such as music-making activities, can affect cognitive functioning and reduce cognitive decline in aging is often referred to as the mental exercise hypothesis. One ubiquitous musical activity is choir singing. Like other musical activities, singing is hypothesized to impact cognitive and especially executive functions. Despite the commonness of choir singing, little is known about the extent to which singing can affect cognition in adulthood. In this cross-sectional group study, we examined the relationship between age and four auditory executive functions to test hypotheses about the relationship between the level of mental activity and cognitive functioning. We also examined pitch discrimination capabilities. A non-probabilistic sample of 147 cognitively healthy adults was recruited, which included 75 non-singers (mean age 52.5 ± 20.3; 20–98 years) and 72 singers (mean age 55.5 ± 19.2; 21–87 years). Tests of selective attention, processing speed, inhibitory control, and working memory were administered to all participants. Our main hypothesis was that executive functions and age would be negatively correlated, and that this relationship would be stronger in non-singers than singers, consistent with the differential preservation hypothesis. The alternative hypothesis - preserved differentiation – predicts that the difference between singers and non-singers in executive functions is unaffected by age. Our results reveal a detrimental effect of age on processing speed, selective attention, inhibitory control and working memory. The effect of singing was comparatively more limited, being positively associated only with frequency discrimination, processing speed, and, to some extent, inhibitory control. Evidence of differential preservation was limited to processing speed. We also found a circumscribed positive impact of age of onset and a negative impact of singing experience on cognitive functioning in singers. Together, these findings were interpreted as reflecting an age-related decline in executive function in cognitively healthy adults, with specific and limited positive impacts of singing, consistent with the preserved differentiation hypothesis, but not with the differential preservation hypothesis.
... For instance, the cognitive reserve hypothesis posits that factors such as innate differences (e.g., personality traits) or life experiences (e.g., educational attainment) provide reserve capacity which protects the individual from the negative effects of aging on episodic memory (Christensen et al., 2008). Moreover, "differential perservation" (Salthouse, 2006;Salthouse et al., 1990) refers to the situation in which people differ in the level of hypothesized protective factors and predictability in their rate of decline, which may be determined by dispositional factors such as Big Five personality traits. The second possibility that could explain the age-related difference in personality-episodic memory association would be "preserved differentiation", which proposes that individuals differ in hypothesized protective factors that predict the rates of cognitive decline (Salthouse, 2006;Salthouse et al., 1990). ...
... Moreover, "differential perservation" (Salthouse, 2006;Salthouse et al., 1990) refers to the situation in which people differ in the level of hypothesized protective factors and predictability in their rate of decline, which may be determined by dispositional factors such as Big Five personality traits. The second possibility that could explain the age-related difference in personality-episodic memory association would be "preserved differentiation", which proposes that individuals differ in hypothesized protective factors that predict the rates of cognitive decline (Salthouse, 2006;Salthouse et al., 1990). ...
... Neuroticism was not a predictor in young people but negatively related to episodic memory performance in middle-aged and older adults can be explained by the stronger associations between Neuroticism and psychological activities that may result in impaired performance on episodic memory (McEwen, 2000;Wilson et al., 2006). This finding is also consistent with "differential prevention" (Salthouse, 2006;Salthouse et al., 1990), which proposes that people's differences in the level of hypothesized protective factors and predictability differ in their rate of decline are determined by dispositional factors such as Big Five personality traits. ...
The identification of factors that contribute to memory performance is important as memory impairments are related to functional declines, development of dementia, and earlier mortality. Among factors that contribute to episodic memory performance, personality traits seem to play an important role. Yet, previous studies on personality and episodic memory solely focused on older adults, much less is known about these associations in young and middle-aged groups given personality traits and episodic memory varies with age. By using three regression models for the young (16 to 35, N = 10,525), middle-aged (35 to 55, N = 12,291), and older (above 55, N = 10,258) groups for average score, the immediate word recall task score, and the delayed word recall task score respectively, the current study found that Openness is positively related to episodic memory performance across all age groups. Neuroticism and Agreeableness were negatively related to episodic memory performance in middle-aged and older adults. Extraversion was positively associated with episodic memory performance in young and middle-aged people. Conscientiousness was weakly associated with episodic memory in young people but not in middle-aged or older adults.
... The construct of cognitive reserve proposes that greater lifetime engagement in cognitively stimulating activities may provide a buffer against the effects of brain damage or pathology and help to cope with age-related changes in the brain (Stern, 2009). Some authors have argued that the influence of activity engagement on cognitive ability could follow two patterns: differential preservation (suggesting that individuals who engage in more cognitively stimulating activities would show less age-related cognitive decline) versus preserved differentiation (suggesting that individuals who engage in more cognitively stimulating activities would show higher levels of cognitive functioning throughout life, but without affecting the rate of cognitive change) (Salthouse, 2006). In their recent review, Pettigrew and Soldan (2019) reported that, although higher cognitive reserve is associated with better cognitive performance, its impact on longitudinal cognitive trajectories is unclear and needs more research. ...
... Therefore, our study shows that, at least in a sample of healthy older adults, cognitive reserve assessed with multiple indexes is related to lower global cognitive decline in a four-year follow up, which could at least partly explain the protective influence of openness on cognitive decline. Hence, our study would support the differential preservation hypothesis, suggesting that healthy older adults who engage in more cognitively stimulating activities would show less age-related cognitive decline (Salthouse, 2006). However, it is also important to note that, although our results showed that openness was related to better cognitive functioning and less decline via cognitive reserve, we did not find that higher openness was directly related to better cognitive functioning or change. ...
Objective:
Openness to experience has been consistently associated with better cognitive functioning in older people, but its association with cognitive decline is less clear. Cognitive reserve has been proposed as a mechanism underlying this relationship, but previous studies have reported mixed findings, possibly due to the different ways of conceptualizing cognitive reserve. We aimed to analyze the potential mediating role of cognitive reserve in the association between openness and cognitive functioning and decline in healthy older people.
Method:
In Wave 1 and at the four-year follow-up (Wave 2), 87 healthy older people (49.4% women; M age = 65.08, SD = 4.54) completed a neuropsychological battery to assess cognitive functioning and a questionnaire to assess cognitive reserve. Openness was measured with the NEO- Five-Factor Inventory. Mediation models were proposed to investigate the relationship between openness and cognitive function or decline through cognitive reserve or its change.
Results:
Cognitive reserve mediated the openness-cognitive functioning association. Thus, individuals with higher openness showed greater cognitive reserve, and this greater cognitive reserve was associated with better cognitive functioning. Moreover, greater cognitive reserve at baseline also mediated the association between higher openness and slower cognitive decline. However, change in cognitive reserve did not mediate the association between openness and change in cognitive functioning.
Conclusions:
Cognitive reserve is a mechanism underlying the association between openness and cognitive functioning and decline. These findings support the differential preservation hypothesis, suggesting that healthy older adults who engage in more cognitively stimulating activities would show less age-related cognitive decline.
... In line with this assumption, mentally stimulating activities have been shown to be associated with slower cognitive decline, with some studies also showing benefits of engaging in social and physical activities (Fallahpour et al., 2016;Hertzog et al., 2008;Köhncke et al., 2017;Newton et al., 2018;Nyberg & Pudas, 2019;Stine-Morrow & Manavbasi, 2022;Yates et al., 2016) or in a higher activity diversity (Bielak et al., 2019;Carlson et al., 2012;Rizzuto et al., 2017). However, whereas a positive association between activity and cognitive ability levels were commonly found, some studies could not find significant associations between activity levels and subsequent cognitive decline (e.g., Bielak et al., 2012;Gow et al., 2014;Mitchell et al., 2012;Salthouse et al., 2006). Engagement in leisure activities is generally measured with scales asking participants to report the frequency with which they engage in a list of activities. ...
... Extraversion and Openness were also associated with slower cognitive decline in the older age group. One potential explanation for this effect might be the stronger engagement in social and mental activities found for older adults with higher Openness and Extraversion levels (see also Curtis, 2015;Salthouse, 2006;Stine-Morrow & Manavbasi, 2022). This is partly supported by the finding that 2.1% of the cognitive decline variance was explained by the shared variance of personality traits and activity engagement. ...
The engagement in cognitively stimulating activities has been found to be associated with slower rates of cognitive decline in old age. In which type of activities people engage in may depend on their personality traits, which thus might have an impact on later cognitive fitness. To study these potential links, we examined the associations between Neuroticism, Extraversion, and Openness; different types of leisure activities (e.g., social, mental, physical); and cognitive ability levels and decline in older adults. Analyses were based on a sample of young-old (60-72 years old; n = 1,609) and old-old (78 years or older; n = 1,085) adults from the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen, who participated in up to five repeated measurements of cognitive abilities spanning 12 years. We used latent growth curve models to estimate cognitive levels and decline, as well as the correlations with initial personality trait levels and leisure activity engagement. In both groups, lower Neuroticism, higher Extraversion, and higher Openness levels were moderately associated with stronger engagement in all types of activities. Lower Neuroticism, higher Extraversion, and a more activity lifestyle were weakly to moderately associated with slower cognitive decline in the old-old age group. There, personality traits and activities explained 9.3% of the variance in cognitive decline after controlling for age, sex, education, and chronic diseases (which explained 9.0%). Taken together, this study provides further evidence for the connection between personality traits, activity engagement, and later cognitive decline in old age. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
... In line with this assumption, mentally stimulating activities have been shown to be associated with slower cognitive decline, with some studies also showing benefits of engaging in social and physical activities (Fallahpour et al., 2016;Hertzog et al., 2008;Köhncke et al., 2017;Newton et al., 2018;Nyberg & Pudas, 2019;Stine-Morrow & Manavbasi, 2022;Yates et al., 2016) or in a higher activity diversity (Bielak et al., 2019;Carlson et al., 2012;Rizzuto et al., 2017). However, whereas a positive association between activity and cognitive ability levels were commonly found, some studies could not find significant associations between activity levels and subsequent cognitive decline (e.g., Bielak et al., 2012;Gow et al., 2014;Mitchell et al., 2012;Salthouse et al., 2006). Engagement in leisure activities is generally measured with scales asking participants to report the frequency with which they engage in a list of activities. ...
... Extraversion and Openness were also associated with slower cognitive decline in the older age group. One potential explanation for this effect might be the stronger engagement in social and mental activities found for older adults with higher Openness and Extraversion levels (see also Curtis, 2015;Salthouse, 2006;Stine-Morrow & Manavbasi, 2022). This is partly supported by the finding that 2.1% of the cognitive decline variance was explained by the shared variance of personality traits and activity engagement. ...
The engagement in cognitively stimulating activities has been found to be associated with slower rates of cognitive decline in old age. In which type of activities people engage in arguably depends partly on their personality traits, which thus might have an impact on later cognitive fitness. To study these potential associations, we examined the associations between Neuroticism, Extraversion and Openness, different types of leisure activities (e.g., social, mental, physical), and cognitive ability levels and decline in older adults. Analyses were based on a sample of young-old (60 to 72 years old; n = 1,609) and old-old (78 years or older; n = 1,085) adults from the Swedish National Study on Aging and Care in Kungsholmen (SNAC-K), who participated in up to five repeated measurements of cognitive abilities spanning 12 years. We used latent growth curve models to estimate cognitive levels and decline, as well as the associations with initial personality trait levels and leisure activity engagement. In both groups, lower Neuroticism, higher Extraversion and higher Openness levels were moderately associated with stronger engagement in all types of activities. Lower Neuroticism, higher Extraversion and a more activity lifestyle were weakly to moderately associated with slower cognitive decline in the old-old age group. There, personality traits and activities explained 9.3% of the variance in cognitive decline after controlling for age, sex, education and chronic diseases (which explained 9.0%). Taken together, this study provides further evidence for the associations of personality traits and activity engagement with later cognitive decline in old age.
... PIAAC psychometrically measures respondents' proficiency in literacy and numeracy -two types of cognitive skills essential for the development of higher-order cognitive skills as well as required for gaining access to and understanding knowledge domains (OECD, 2013a). Although there is debate about the use of cross-sectional data to analyze age-related differences in skills (see Schooler, 2007;Abrams, 2009;Schaie, 2009), such data sets can be used to bear on hypotheses about processes of accumulation and depreciation, particularly if the samples are sufficiently large (Salthouse, 2006(Salthouse, , 2007. We analyze these data with propensity score matching techniques, comparing workers over 40 who stopped working only recently before the survey with comparable adults who remained active. ...
... The degree to which individuals experience normal cognitive aging depends on the complex interplay of biological and environmental parameters, on social influences and on individual behavior Heckman, 2007, 2008). Research suggests that training the mind helps to slow down cognitive decline (Salthouse, 2006). This implies skills acquisition can be fostered, and cognitive decline can be slowed down by regularly engaging in activities that require using the brain. ...
... In one scenario, rates and amount of cognitive declines in old age have shifted over the past decades such that declines are shallower now. Factors that might contribute to historical differences in preservation (Salthouse, 2006) and maintenance (Stern, 2012) of cognitive function can be derived from the vascular hypothesis of cognitive aging (Casserly & Topol, 2004). Diseases of vascular origin (e.g., coronary heart disease, stroke) and vascular risk factors (e.g., hypertension) presumably influence the heart and the brain in ways that accelerate cognitive aging. ...
... Contrary to the cognitive-reserve hypothesis, results showed no evidence for a shift in the onset of decline. However, this finding is consistent with both the preserved-differentiation perspective (Salthouse, 2006), by which level differences established in early life are maintained and carried forward into old age, and recent meta-analyses showing that differences in education have substantial effects on levels of cognitive functioning but null effects on rates of cognitive aging (Lövdén et al., 2020) or brain aging (Nyberg et al., 2021). It seems that history-graded improvements resulting from early-life education, cognitive stimulation, and health care persist into old age, but not because aging processes have been any kinder. ...
History-graded increases in older adults’ levels of cognitive performance are well documented, but little is known about historical shifts in within-person change: cognitive decline and onset of decline. We combined harmonized perceptual-motor speed data from independent samples recruited in 1990 and 2010 to age-match 2,008 longitudinal observations (Mage.observations=78 years, 50% women) from n=228 participants in the Berlin Aging Study (BASE) and n=583 participants in Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II). We used nonlinear growth models that orthogonalize within- and between-person age effects and control for retest effects. At age 78, the later-born BASE-II cohort substantially outperformed the earlier-born BASE cohort (d = 1.20, 25 years of age differences). Age trajectories however were parallel, with no evidence of cohort differences in amount/rate of decline or onset of decline. Cognitive functioning has shifted to higher levels, but cognitive decline in old age appears to proceed similarly to how it did two decades ago.
... This finding is consistent with the preserved differentiation view from the 'use it or lose it' hypothesis: those with a higher cognitive ability, built from long-term music engagement, may maintain a trend of higher cognitive ability over their lifetime. 55 Table 3 summarizes the key evidence regarding music engagement as a proxy for CR. ...
Music engagement is a ubiquitous activity that is thought to have cognitive benefits for the rapidly aging population. In the absence of robust treatment approaches for many age-related and neuropathological health issues, interest has emerged surrounding lifestyle-enriching activities, like exercise and music engagement, to build cognitive reserve across the lifespan and preserve neurocognitive function in older adults. The present review evaluates evidence of neurocognitive preservation arising from lifelong music engagement with respect to the cognitive reserve hypothesis. We collated a body of neuroimaging, behavioral and epidemiological evidence to adjudicate the benefits of music engagement for cognitive reserve. The findings suggest that music engagement should be considered in tandem with other well-established cognitive reserve proxies as a contributor to differential clinical outcomes in older populations at risk of age-related and neuropathological cognitive decline.
... La paura è che i circuiti mentali utilizzati per attività funzionali alla gestione della mole informativa ma più superficiali, come il multitasking e la scrematura, si stiano rafforzando e possano nel tempo sostituire i processi cognitivi alti dedicati all'attenzione e alla riflessione profonda 4 (Firth et al., 2019;Wolf, 2018). Le nostre connessioni sinaptiche rispondono infatti ad un principio basilare: le funzioni che utilizziamo e alleniamo di meno vengono man mano sostituite da quelle che utilizziamo di più, seguendo un processo di 'potatura' delle funzioni meno sollecitate (use it or lose it, Hultsch et al., 1999;Salthouse, 2006). Non esiste tuttavia un circuito neuronale geneticamente preposto alla lettura: imparare a leggere richiede che ogni nuovo lettore dia forma al proprio reading circuit grazie alla plasticità cerebrale e in risposta ad anni di allenamento alla lettura (Dehaene, 2009;Wolf, 2009). ...
In the current media ecosystem, reading increasingly passes through the web and the screens of electronic devices. Contextually, we are witnessing a re- gression of traditional reading and the emergence of new reading practices. The loss of centrality of the book-form, the image becoming predominant over the written word, the reader’s dishabituation to long-form reading in favor of fast narrative rhythms, short and simplified textualities, information overload, and the use of ‘distractive’ reading devices undoubtedly have rele- vant consequences for comprehension processes. On the one hand, reading today becomes increasingly fragmented, but on the other hand, it acquires new social and participatory dimensions. In this scenario those who deal with reading cannot avoid a reflection that tries to understand ‘what we are losing and what we are gaining’ in the transition from paper to screen. This is obviously not a dispute between advocates of ‘traditional’ and ‘innovative’ reading practices. To promote reading, it is necessary to overcome this false dichotomy through a «reconciliation thinking», as called for by Pope Francis, while preserving the productive tension that is emitted when «opposing elements pull in opposite directions» (in Wolf, 2022, p. 288). A cognitive ten- sion that is fundamental to interpreting and managing the possible pitfalls and danger of cognitive and cultural behavioral impoverishment.
... ities allow individuals to stay more active in different domains, and greater declines in cognitive functioning are likely to lead to less engagement (Gow et al., 2012(Gow et al., , 2017. Furthermore, even in the absence of causal effects, positive cross-sectional associations could be present due to "preserved differentiation" (Bielak & Gow, 2023;T. A. Salthouse, 2006): Those with higher cognitive abilities may have always been more active in prosocial activities, for example, because they have more physical and economic resources, and this advantage could be preserved over time (Bielak, Cherbuin, et al., 2014). Likewise, even if activity and cognition are associated longitudinally at the betweenperso ...
An active lifestyle has been associated with better cognitive performance in many studies. However, most studies have focused on leisure activities or paid work, with less consideration of the kind of prosocial activities, many people engage in, including volunteering, grandparenting, and family care. In the present study, based on four waves of the German Ageing Survey (N = 6,915, aged 40–85 at baseline), we used parallel growth curves to investigate the longitudinal association of level and change in volunteering, grandparenting, and family care with level and change in processing speed. Given the gendered nature of engagement in these activities over the life span, we tested for gender differences in the associations. Only volunteering was reliably associated with higher speed of processing at baseline, no consistent longitudinal associations were found. Our results show that although prosocial activities are of great societal importance, expectations of large rewards in terms of cognitive health may be exaggerated.
... For example, one study examined the association of anxiety, depression, and worry symptoms on cognitive performance in older adults and found that worry symptoms had the highest contribution in predicting cognition; in contrast, anxiety and depressive symptoms had few unique associations with cognitive performance (de Vito et al., 2019). Another study examined the behavioral mechanisms between loneliness, depression, and cognition and found that loneliness and depression may associate with fewer health-promoting and cognitive-stimulating behaviors, e.g., fewer physical, social, and cognitive activities, leading to cognitive impairment according to the -use it or lose it‖ hypothesis (Salthouse, 2006). ...
Background and Objectives
Depressive symptoms are common in older adults, and often co-occur with other mental health problems. However, knowledge about depressive symptom-domains and their associations with other conditions is limited. This study examined depressive symptom-domains and associations with anxiety, cognition, and loneliness.
Research Design and Methods
A sample of 3795 participants aged 60 years and older were recruited from the community in Hong Kong. They were assessed for depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 [PHQ-9]), anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-item), loneliness (UCLA 3-item) and cognition (Montreal Cognitive Assessment 5-minute protocol). Summary descriptive statistics were calculated, followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of PHQ9. Multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) analysis was used to examine the associations between mental health conditions in the general sample and sub-groups based on depressive symptom severity.
Results
A four-factor model based on the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) showed the best model fit of PHQ-9 (χ2/df = 10.63, RMSEA = 0.05, CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.93). After adjusting for demographics, four depressive symptom-domains were differentially associated with anxiety, loneliness, and cognition across different depression severity groups. The Negative Valance Systems and Internalizing domain (NVS-I; guilt and self-harm) were consistently associated with anxiety (β=0.45, 0.44) and loneliness (β=0.11, 0.27) regardless of depression severity (at risk/mild vs moderate and more severe, respectively, all p<0.001).
Discussion and Implications
The consistent associations between the NVS-I domain of depression with anxiety and loneliness warrant attention. Simultaneous considerations of depressive symptom-domains and symptom severity are needed for designing more personalized care.
... Queste prove provengono soprattutto da studi longitudinali che mettono in risalto la capacità lenitiva dell'invecchiamento delle competenze svolta da fattori quali un'istruzione elevata, una densa serie di esperienze formative durante il corso della vita, un coinvolgimento frequente in attività a elevato impegno intellettivo, dense relazioni sociali. Lo stretto rapporto tra uso delle competenze cognitive e il loro mantenimento -«use it or lose it approach» (Salthouse, 2006) -e la rilevanza del continuo coinvolgimento intellettuale (Staff et al., 2004;de Grip et al., 2008) suggeriscono che le competenze cognitive sono come muscoli: si sviluppano e si mantengono forti se usate frequentemente, altrimenti sono soggette al decadimento. Secondo la teoria del «coinvolgimento intellettuale» (Reder, 1994) impegnarsi in attività cognitive su base quotidiana rafforza e sviluppa le abilità sottostanti tali attività. ...
ibattito pubblico e senso comune associano erroneamente la povertà educativa ai soli paesi in via di sviluppo, mentre è invece molto diffusa anche in un paese avanzato come l’Italia, dove si riproduce per via intergenerazionale, colpisce persino i diplomati e include una quota consistente di adulti. Nel nostro paese molti hanno smesso di “imparare a imparare” e hanno sovente dimenticato ciò che hanno appreso a scuola. Mentre la politica si limita a fare della scuola il capro espiatorio, nessuno si preoccupa di comprendere come in realtà sia il contesto culturale extrascolastico ad alimentare il fenomeno. Il volume, che raccoglie e integra ricerche empiriche sulle competenze di base non solo degli studenti ma dell’intera popolazione italiana, spiega che cos’è la povertà educativa, come se ne misurano l’intensità e la diffusione, quali fattori ne influenzano la riproduzione, dove si nascondono le sue molteplici cause e in quali ambiti se ne osservano gli effetti più sfavorevoli. Ne emerge un panorama allarmante, a fronte del quale i decisori politici dovrebbero reagire con interventi di ampio respiro, di lungo periodo e rivolti alla fetta più ampia possibile della popolazione
... Cognitive functions show a progressive decline beginning in the middle-age (Verhaeghen and Salthouse, 1997;Verhaeghen and Cerella, 2002;Salthouse, 2006;Nyberg et al., 2012;Hartshorne and Germine, 2015;Salthouse, 2015, for reviews). This decline may lead to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and increase the risk for dementia in older age, as they are part of the same continuum (Scheltens et al., 2021). ...
Introduction:
There is a large interindividual variability in cognitive functioning with increasing age due to biological and lifestyle factors. One of the most important lifestyle factors is the level of physical fitness (PF). The link between PF and brain activity is widely accepted but the specificity of cognitive functions affected by physical fitness across the adult lifespan is less understood. The present study aims to clarify whether PF is basically related to cognition and general intelligence in healthy adults, and whether higher levels of PF are associated with better performance in the same or different cognitive functions at different ages.
Methods:
A sample of 490 participants (20-70 years) was analyzed to examine this relationship. Later, the sample was split half into the young to middle-aged group (YM; 20-45 years; n = 254), and the middleaged to older group (MO; 46-70 years; n = 236). PF was measured by a quotient of maximum power in a bicycle ergometry test PWC-130 divided by body weight (W/kg), which was supported by a self-reported level of PF. Cognitive performance was evaluated by standardized neuropsychological test batteries.
Results:
Regression models showed a relationship between PF and general intelligence (g-factor) and its subcomponents extracted using structural equation modeling (SEM) in the entire sample. This association was moderated by age, which also moderated some specific cognitive domains such as attention, logical reasoning, and interference processing. After splitting the sample into two age groups, a significant relationship was found between cognitive status, as assessed by the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), and PF in both age groups. However, apart from cognitive failures in daily life (CFQ), no other association between PF and specific cognitive functions was found in the YM group. In contrast, several positive associations were observed in the MO group, such as with selective attention, verbal memory, working memory, logical reasoning, and interference processing.
Discussion:
These findings show that middle-aged to older adults benefit more from PF than younger to middle-aged adults. The results are discussed in terms of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying the cognitive effects of PF across the lifespan.
Clinical trial registration:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT05155397, identifier NCT05155397.
... Two studies investigated whether a 3-month cognitive intervention involving simultaneously learning multiple (three or more) real-world skills would increase cognitive abilities and functional independence in older adults. The target outcomes of the intervention were working memory, cognitive control, and episodic memory because these cognitive abilities are among the first to decline with increased age and underlie more complex, higher-order cognitive functions (Park & Reuter-Lorenz, 2009;Salthouse, 2006), as well as being required for daily functional tasks. Study 1 investigated the feasibility of learning multiple skills simultaneously in older adults, as well as potential increases in working memory, cognitive control, episodic memory, and functional independence compared with a no-contact control group. ...
Objectives
The natural learning experience from infancy to emerging adulthood, when considerable cognitive and functional growth is observed, mandates learning multiple real-world skills simultaneously. The present studies investigated whether learning multiple real-world skills simultaneously is possible in older adults and also whether it improves both their cognitive abilities (working memory, episodic memory, and cognitive control) and functional independence.
Methods
Over two studies (15 and 27 participants), older adults learned at least three new skills (e.g., Spanish, drawing, music composition) simultaneously for 3 months. Participants completed cognitive and functional assessments before, during, and after the intervention in both studies. Participants were recruited sequentially for an intervention or no-contact control group in Study 1, and Study 2 included only an intervention group, who also completed assessments 4–6 weeks prior to the start of the intervention (i.e., they served as their own control group).
Results
Results from both studies show that simultaneously learning multiple skills is feasible and potentially beneficial for healthy older adults. Learning multiple skills simultaneously increased cognitive abilities in older adults by midpoint of the intervention, to levels similar to performance in a separate sample of middle-aged adults.
Discussion
Our findings demonstrate the feasibility and potential of conducting a real-world skill-learning intervention involving learning three novel skills with older adults. Our multiskill intervention may provide broad cognitive gains, akin to the benefits experienced earlier in the life span.
... Given that cognitive abilities depend on engagement in mentally stimulating activities, [1] retirement warrants particular attention as a feasible trigger of cognitive decline. [2] Continued mental stimulation after retirement is unarguably critical; however, other factors related to cognitive decline among retirees are also a key public health concern given the unrelenting trend toward societal aging. ...
Background:
Little information is available on the characteristics of cognitive ability among retirees. This study aimed to identify factors associated with cognitive impairment among Korean retirees.
Materials and methods:
We used data from the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing survey. A total of 1755 retirees aged 45 years or older who had normal cognition were followed up for 12 years to identify cognitive impairment. Stepwise multivariate logistic models were used to assess odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for cognitive decline.
Results:
Well-known risk factors, such as age (OR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.06-1.09), female sex (OR, 1.49; 95% CI, 1.08-2.04), low education (OR, 2.45; 95% CI, 1.91-3.14), and depressive mood (OR, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.16-1.97), remained significantly associated with cognitive decline. Sex-stratified analysis revealed that depressive mood was significantly associated with cognitive decline in male retirees only (OR, 1.90; 95% CI, 1.31-2.75).
Conclusion:
Our finding indicates that screening male retirees for depressive mood is required to retard cognitive aging.
... Contrary to our hypothesis, high enrichment during early and later but not middle, life also predicted a slower rate of cognitive decline. These findings may support the cognitive reserve theory of differential preservation, which states that advantages gained by enrichment are increased overtime by individuals not only starting at a higher baseline cognitive level but also having a more gradual rate of cognitive decline (Salthouse, 2006;Tucker-Drob et al., 2009). This is corroborated by the finding that participants with average to low enrichment in early and later life not only start at a lower baseline of cognitive performance but also experience steeper rates of cognitive decline. ...
Growing evidence suggests that participation in enriching activities (physical, social, and mental) across the life course is beneficial for cognitive functioning in older age. However, few studies have examined the effects of enrichment across the entire life course within the same participants. Using 2,931 participants in the Health and Retirement Study, we linked self-report data from later life and retrospective self-report data from early life and midlife to cognitive performance after Age 65. We categorized participants as having either high (top ∼25%) or average to low (bottom ∼75%) level of enrichment during each life period. Thus, eight groups were identified that reflected unique patterns of enrichment during early, mid, and later life (e.g., high-high-high). Using growth curve modeling, we found that life course enrichment patterns predicted both cognitive functioning and the rate of cognitive decline across five time points spanning 8 years (Aim 1). Groups with high enrichment during at least one life period had higher performance and slower decline in older age, compared to those who had average to low levels of enrichment throughout all three life periods. We also found that high enrichment during each life period independently predicted better cognitive performance and that high enrichment during early and later life also predicted slower cognitive decline (Aim 2). These findings support the idea that high enrichment is beneficial for cognition in later life and that the effects are long-lasting, even when individuals are inconsistent in enrichment engagement throughout the entire life course. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
... There is also growing evidence that another potentially modifiable risk factor for dementia (and cognitive decline more generally) is cognitive activity during the life course (Fisher et al., 2014;Lee et al., 2018;Salthouse, 2006). Specifically, a key hypothesis is that being cognitively active, and being in a stimulating environment, increases people's "cognitive reserve" by strengthening the functioning and plasticity of neural circuits (e.g., Kivipelto et al., 2018;Smart et al., 2014;Stern, 2012). ...
Dementia prevalence is projected to rise steeply in coming decades, producing tremendous burdens on families, and health and social services. Motivated by the need for further robust evidence on modifiable risk factors, we investigate the relationship between cognitive activity at work and later‐life dementia. Using data from the US Health and Retirement Study matched to the O*NET occupational database, we find that a one standard deviation increase in the cognitive activity associated with one's longest held occupation is associated with a 0.9 percentage point reduction in (predicted) dementia, or a 24% reduction relative to the mean. This relationship is consistently found across model specifications and robustness tests. When controlling for individual fixed‐effects we find that the association between dementia and work cognitive activity increases with age. Overall, our results provide some evidence in support of the inclusion of cognitive activity at work as a recognized modifiable risk factor for dementia.
... These findings suggest that both social isolation and loneliness may impact cognitive health but probably in a different way, with a stronger weight on cognitive reserve for the first and on emotional wellbeing for the second. A possible explanation of the link between social isolation and cognitive decline would have to do with the "use it or lose it" perspective (Hultsch et al., 1999;Salthouse, 2006). Park and Bischof (2013) reviewed the evidence suggesting that engagement in an environment that requires cognitive effort may facilitate cognitive function in older adults. ...
Objective
Social isolation and loneliness are associated with poor health (immunity, inflammation, etc.) in ageing. The purpose of this scoping review was to investigate the link between social isolation, loneliness (as distinct constructs, in contrast to previous published work) and cognition in cognitively healthy older adults.
Method
We followed PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Our search, conducted between January 2017 and April 2021, yielded 2,673 articles, of which, twelve longitudinal studies were finally identified as meeting the inclusion criteria. Multiple cognitive functions (short-term and episodic memory, attention, and global cognitive functioning) were measured.
Results
The results showed that both social isolation and loneliness were associated with poor cognition in ageing, with depression as a possible mediator between loneliness and poor cognition. Some studies also suggested that the link between social isolation, loneliness and cognitive decline may be bidirectional.
Conclusion
We conclude that both social isolation and loneliness may have a different impact on cognition. While depression may be an important mediator between loneliness and cognitive decline, the lack of cognitive stimulation may be a greater mediator between social isolation and cognitive health.
... Although treating the brain as a muscle that can be made stronger through exercise may be a crude analogy, the notion that mentally stimulating activities may improve cognitive function or even prevent cognitive decline has been widely discussed in relation to normal ageing (e.g. Gallacher 2005;Salthouse 2006). Indeed, it has been also sometimes characterised in the literature as 'use it or lose it' (Hultsch 1999), perhaps reflecting a general view that lack of cognitive activity hastens cognitive decline. ...
Key messages ‐ For people with mild‐to‐moderate dementia, cognitive stimulation probably leads to small benefits in cognition (the general ability to think and remember). ‐ We found a range of other probable benefits, including improved well‐being, mood and day‐to‐day abilities, but benefits were generally slight and, especially for cognition and well‐being, varied greatly between studies. ‐ Most studies evaluated group cognitive stimulation. Future studies should try to clarify the effects of individual cognitive stimulation, assess how often group sessions should take place to have the best effect, and identify who benefits most from cognitive stimulation. What is dementia? Dementia is an umbrella term for numerous brain disorders. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common of these. People of all ages can develop dementia, but most often it occurs in later life. People with dementia typically experience a decline in their cognitive abilities, which can impair memory, thinking, language and practical skills. These problems usually worsen over time and can lead to isolation, upset and distress for the person with dementia and those providing care and support. Cognitive stimulation Cognitive stimulation (CS) is a form of 'mental exercise' developed specifically to help people with dementia. It involves a wide range of activities aiming to stimulate thinking and memory generally, including discussion of past and present events and topics of interest, word games, puzzles, music and creative practical activities. Usually delivered by trained staff working with a small group of people with dementia for around 45 minutes twice‐weekly, it can also be provided on a one‐to‐one basis. Some programmes have trained family carers to provide CS to their relative. What did we want to find out? We wanted to find out if CS was better for people living with dementia than usual care or unstructured social activities to improve: ‐ cognitive abilities (including memory, thinking and language skills) ‐ well‐being and mood ‐ day‐to‐day abilities ‐ distress and upset for the person with dementia and/or carers We also wanted to find out if family carers experienced any changes associated with the person with dementia receiving CS or if there were any unwanted effects. What did we do?We searched for studies that looked at group or individual CS compared with usual care or unstructured social activity in people living with dementia. We compared and summarised the results of the studies and rated our confidence in the evidence, based on factors such as study methods and sizes. What did we find? We found 37 studies involving 2766 participants with mild or moderate dementia and an average age of 79 years. The biggest study involved 356 participants, the smallest 13. The studies were conducted in 17 countries from five continents, with most in Europe. Fewer than half (16) included participants living in care homes or hospitals. The length of the trials varied from four weeks to two years. Sessions per week varied from one to six. The overall number of sessions varied from eight to 520. Most studies lasted for around 10 weeks, with around 20 sessions. Most studies offered CS in groups, with just eight examining individual CS. Main results No negative effects were reported. We found that CS probably results in a small benefit to cognition at the end of the course of sessions compared with usual care/unstructured activities. This benefit equates roughly to a six‐month delay in the cognitive decline usually expected in mild‐to‐moderate dementia. We found preliminary evidence suggesting that cognition benefited more when group sessions occurred twice weekly or more (rather than once weekly) and that benefits were greater in studies where participants’ dementia at the outset was of mild severity. We also found that participants improved on measures of communication and social interaction and showed slight benefits in day‐to‐day activities and in their own ratings of their mood. There is probably also a slight improvement in participants’ well‐being and in experiences that are upsetting and distressing for people with dementia and carers. We found CS probably made little or no difference to carers' mood or anxiety. What are the limitations of the evidence? Our confidence in the evidence is only moderate because of concerns about differences in results between studies. We cannot be certain of the exact reasons for these differences, but we noted that studies varied in: • the way CS was delivered (individually, in groups, using an app) and the programme of activities included • who delivered the programme (trained professionals, care workers, family carers) • the frequency of sessions (1 per week to 5 per week) • the duration of the programme (from 4 weeks to 1 or 2 years) • the type(s) of dementia with which participants were diagnosed and the severity of the dementia • whether participants lived in care homes and hospitals or in their own homes We were unable to examine as many of these sources of potential difference as would have been desirable because of the relatively small number of studies reflecting each aspect. How up‐to‐date is this evidence? This review updates our previous review from 2012, with evidence up‐to‐date to March 2022.
... (a) The onset of age-related decline in domains such as cognitive and physical functioning [12,35]. (b) The onset of age-related gains in experience, knowledge, and wisdom [13,36,37]. ...
The notion of the "older worker" is frequently used in the organizational literature, in organizational practice, and in society, but so far, no research has investigated why people consider someone to be an older worker at a certain age. In the qualitative part of this study, we examined potential reasons for considering workers to be "older" at a certain age. In the quantitative part of this study, we investigated demographic characteristics (i.e., age, sex, education), job characteristics (i.e., job level, typical age in a job), and beliefs (i.e., perceived remaining time at work, motivation to continue working after retirement, positive and negative age stereotypes) as predictors of people's conceptions of "older worker age"." Data were provided by 269 employees from various jobs and organizations. The mean age at which participants considered someone to be an "older worker" was approximately 55 years. The most frequently stated reasons for considering workers to be "older" at a certain age were retirement age and age-related decline. Results of a regression analysis showed that participants' age, sex, and perceived remaining time predicted "older worker age". These findings provide first insights into the psychological construction of the "older worker".
... Additionally, leisure activities in this study are shown to have a significant promoting effect on cognitive ability, which is consistent with the findings of previous studies [56,57]. According to the theory of cognitive reservation, intellectual-learning leisure activities such as reading and listening to radio can stimulate older people to keep learning [58,59], thus effectively preventing cognitive decline. Moreover, relaxation leisure activities stimulate the brain to promote cognitive improvement in older adults by improving overall health [60]. ...
This study aimed to research the trajectory of leisure activity and the health status of older adults and analyze the effects of leisure activity on the health status of older adults. Based on the longitudinal data of CLHLS (2008–2018), the latent growth curve model (LGCM) was used; we found that the leisure activities (LA), activities of daily living (ADL) ability, instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) ability, and cognitive ability (COG) of older adults show a nonlinear downward trend over time. Furthermore, the panel binary regression analysis is used to find that leisure activities have significant inhibitory effects on ADL disorder, IADL disorder, and cognitive impairment in the older population. In addition, by using latent profile analysis (LPA), the older population is classified into three groups according to the homogeneity of the older adults’ choice of leisure activities, namely the types of relaxation, entertainment, and intellectual-learning, respectively. Based on the classification results, the analysis of one-way ANOVA shows that the rates of ADL disorder, IADL disorder, and cognitive impairment of older adults with different types are significantly different. Moreover, the inhibitory effect of leisure activities on the rate of ADL disorder, IADL disorder, and cognitive impairment of older adults is more significant in the middle-aged and high-aged groups. Therefore, older adults should be encouraged to increase leisure activities, especially those who are middle-aged and high-aged.
... Se ha observado que expertos en ajedrez, profesores de universidad o arquitectos, tienen un mayor rendimiento cognitivo en comparación con la población no experta solo en las tareas que más practican. 7 Por otro lado, se ha encontrado que la especialización en una sola actividad puede afectar el rendimiento cognitivo en la función cognitiva implicada en la actividad. 21 Lo anterior indica que para el mantenimiento cognitivo también es relevante la variedad en las actividades. ...
Entre los problemas de salud que pueden limitar la independencia y autonomía de las personas adultas mayores, se encuentran la enfermedad de Alzheimer y la demencia vascular, además otros padecimientos que pueden afectar las funciones cognitivas, como el deterioro cognitivo leve. Para evitar o retardar la pérdida de la funcionalidad por una disminución en las funciones cognitivas, se han propuesto varias estrategias como la alimentación, el ejercicio, la participación social e intervenciones específicas para mejorar la cognición. En este sentido, la integración de dichos estilos de vida son la mejor opción, para mantener y prolongar la funcionalidad cognitiva.
... Activities like quizzes can potentially become ways in which these roles, and the meaning(s) associated with them, become entrenched and reinforced, the quiz-master performing a role that aims to prevent cognitive deterioration and therefore try to keep players closer to 'us' and stop the players becoming 'them'. The drive to keep mentally active by engaging in activities which facilitate this aim is all pervasive: the 'use it or lose it' mentality (Salthouse, 2006). As Kitwood and Bredin (1992: 274) remarked, '[t]he presence of dementia on a large scale in contemporary society, and the dire process which it often entails, raises very deep questions about what it means to be a person'. ...
Quizzes are a ubiquitous part of the dementia social care landscape. This article explores why. Using an ethnographic approach which draws on close analysis of communication, we examine dementia quizzes as a ‘social practice’, and what such a lens can tell us about their popularity in social care settings. Vignettes of real interactions drawn from ten different quizzes recorded in four different group settings attended by 28 people living with dementia and 15 staff members are presented to highlight particular issues. We show that the conditions of post-diagnosis dementia social care are uniquely well suited to an activity such as quizzes which are malleable, requiring little preparation or materials, and impose a communication framework which can help to organise the interactional space. Quizzes also draw on previously forged interactional competences, such as turn-taking and question–answer sequences, a skill that has been shown to persist even as dementia progresses. Finally, we argue that the meaning of quizzes with people with dementia feeds into wider societal values and associations attached to memory, dementia and personhood. The extent to which quizzes are akin to a ‘test’ or a fun and enjoyable social activity rests in how they are enacted. We suggest that practice can be adapted, developed and made more inclusive through input from people living with dementia themselves.
... La plupart des gérontologues admettent que les déclins physiologiques des différents systèmes de l'organisme humain commencent à peu près entre la fin de la troisième et le début de la quatrième décade de vie, à environ 30 ans (Vandervoort 2002 ;Tanaka, Seals 2003 ;Nair 2005 ;Salthouse 2006), et s'intensifie après 60 ans (Tanaka, Seals 2003). Cependant, ces réductions n'arrivent pas au même moment pour tous les individus (Kirkwood 2003) ni pour tous les systèmes physiologiques (Nair 2005). ...
Aging is a phenomenon of increased importance in contemporaneous societies. Although it is well established that physical exercise/activity contributes to maintain functional fitness at optimal levels, physical inactivity is a largely prevalent behaviour among elderly people, thus facilitating the disablement process. The purpose of this review is to study physiological and functional declines during aging. This article also tries to clarify the role played by physical exercise/activity in avoiding or delaying those declines, and in reverting or diminishing their negative impacts on older adults’ health. The influences of both disablement process main components (frailty, disability, and dependence) and of physical exercise/activity on functional fitness are examined. Concerning the relationships between physical exercise/activity and disablement process, some inconsistencies arise among articles, making difficult to compare them and to draw conclusions. The definitions of frailty, as well as the ways to measure physical exercise/activity, constitute the main inconsistencies among studies. However, most of the researches show that a regular practice of physical exercise/activity decreases the age-related declines in both physiological status and functional fitness. Then, exercising regularly can contribute to maintain independence in older adults by reducing the negative effects of the disablement process.
... Reasons for this could be related to having more difficulties in acquiring and developing skills, which also makes them less likely to engage in training or further schooling. This is likely to be exacerbated as long-term inactivity can lead to further skills obsolescence (Mincer and Ofek 1982;Bynner and Parsons 1998;Salthouse 2006;Desjardins and Warnke 2012). This makes them more likely to leave education and try to find a job. ...
This paper investigates to what extent the likelihood of young people being long-term NEET can be explained by low literacy skills, how this varies across advanced countries, and how this cross-national variation can be explained by education and social policies. We use PIAAC data and include macro-level indicators on education and social policies. We analyze the likelihood of being long-term NEET versus being in employment or in education/training among some 34,000 young people aged 20–30 from 25 countries. We find that low-literate young people are more likely to be long-term NEET. While NEET risks are associated with countries’ institutional characteristics, this does not mean that these characteristics and policies always work in favour of low-literate young people. Although high levels of (enabling) ALMP generally reduce the risk of being NEET, they do so less for low-literate young people. Additionally, young people living in social-democratic welfare states are less likely to be NEET, but low-literate young people seem to profit less from this.
... ACE Cognitive stimulation (CS) plays an important role in learning and memory (Mather, 2020) and could offer beneficial effects on cognitive reserve and dementia risk (Collins et al., 2021). Moreover, the lack of cognitive activity accelerates cognitive decline (Woods et al., 2012); being able to accelerate the deterioration of both cognitively healthy elderly subjects and patients with dementia (Salthouse, 2006), therefore it should be started the as soon as possible (Woods et al., 2012). CS was defined by Clare & Woods, (2004) as "engagement in a range of group activities and discussions (usually in a group), aimed at general enhancement of cognitive and social functioning". ...
Background and Purpose
The lack of cognitive activity accelerates age cognitive decline. Cognitive stimulation (CS) tries to enhance cognitive functioning. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the effects of CS on cognitive outcomes (general cognitive functioning and specific cognitive domains) in older adults (aged 65 years or older, cognitively healthy participants, or with mild cognitive impairment, or dementia).
Methods
PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science databases were examined from inception to October 2021. A total of 1,997 studies were identified in these databases, and. 33 studies were finally included in the systematic review and the meta-analysis. Raw means and standard deviations were used for continuous outcomes. Publication bias was examined by Egger's Regression Test for Funnel Plot Asymmetry and the quality assessment tools from the National Institutes of Health.
Results
CS significantly improves general cognitive functioning (mean difference=MD = 1.536, 95%CI, 0.832 to 2.240), memory (MD = 0.365, 95%CI, 0.300 to 0.430), orientation (MD = 0.428, 95%CI, 0.306 to 0.550), praxis (MD = 0.278, 95%CI, 0.094 to 0.462) and calculation (MD = 0.228, 95%CI, 0.112 to 0.343).
Conclusion
CS seems to increase general cognitive functioning, memory, orientation, praxis, and calculation in older adults.
... Experiential engagement is the phenomenological experience of events, the self, and the social world. Such experiences derive in part from personality traits [which have long been recognized as potential contributors to cognition (DeYoung et al. 2009, Salthouse 2006] and attitudes that are dispositional in nature so as to provide some coherence of the self across activities and events (Damasio 2003, Prebble et al. 2013. Experiential engagement may shape behavioral engagement (e.g., extroverted individuals may seek out social interaction, openness to experience may engender activity diversity) and can play a motivational role in supporting attentional and social engagement even in the absence of overt behavioral engagement. ...
Biologically based senescence processes and cumulative opportunities for experience collectively give rise to profound changes in cognition in later adulthood, the trajectories of which vary considerably across individuals. This review focuses on how cognitive aging is shaped by engagement—defined as the ongoing investment of personal resources (e.g., time, attention) to activities, social networks, and experiences—through the adult life span. We review evidence for the effects of different forms of engagement on cognitive aging and consider plausible mechanistic pathways for such effects. Working within an ecological framework, we consider “design solutions” for lifestyle engagement to shape adult cognitive development given the necessary trade-offs endemic to goal-directed systems (e.g., current needs versus long-term preparation, flexibility versus robustness, exploration versus exploitation). Given the limited evidence for broad-based effects of skill training on late-life cognitive health, we argue that a promising paradigm for successful cognitive aging will be to probe synergistic effects of engagement on cognitive aging. Recent developments in personal technology offer promise for innovation in intervention and in measurement.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Developmental Psychology, Volume 4 is December 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
... It seems more likely that this reflects coherence of identity rather than consistency in, for example, engagement in playing card games over the life course (cf. Salthouse, 2006). ...
In light of normative declines in some areas of cognition with age, this chapter considers the potential of behavioral pathways for mitigating and delaying these declines. In particular, it reviews evidence for causal effects of activity engagement and social integration on cognitive development in adulthood, noting some of the challenges in interpreting existing literature for guiding policy and practice. It also discusses some of the neurocognitive, socioemotional, and motivational mechanisms that may contribute to effects of engagement and social integration on cognitive health and concludes with an argument for the utility of an ecological approach to develop principles of lifespan cognitive health.
... There is a positive relationship between the level of mental activity and the level of cognitive functionality [18]. ...
Background: The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between mental endurance and psychological well-being of male
chess players. Methods: 87 male active licensed chess players participated in the study. Ethics committee approval was obtained for
the research. Mental endurance scale, psychological well-being scale and personal information form were used to collect the research
data. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed for the research scales. In addition to descriptive statistics, correlation and
regression analyzes are included in the relational model. Results: Considering the average values obtained from the research scales, it
was found that the mental endurance and psychological well-being levels of chess players were high, and there was a positive and high
level relationship between mental endurance and psychological well-being within the scope of the relational model (r = 0.742; p < 0.001),
and it has been found that mental endurance has a significantly high and positive contribution on psychological well-being in sports (β
= 0.745; p < 0.001). Conclusions: It can be said that as the mental endurance of chess players improves, their psychological health will
also be positively affected. It can also be stated that, especially by directing the young generation to chess, their mental endurance and
psychological health will be improved in a positive way.
Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries have increased the age for full retirement benefits to alleviate financial pressures. Older age is linked to higher rates of cognitive impairment. Therefore, it is crucial for public policymakers to understand the relationship between retirement timing and cognition. The purpose of this scoping review was to review the retirement timing and cognition literature and to assess possible modifying factors. A search across three databases yielded a total of 10 studies. Five studies revealed mixed findings regarding the relationship between retirement timing and cognitive decline, with reported positive, negative, and null associations. In contrast, five studies found that later retirement age reduced the risk of dementia. More cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are needed to investigate modifiable factors such as job characteristics and leisure activities to clarify the mechanisms underlying the relationship between retirement timing and cognition.
Purpose
Amateur singing is a universal, accessible, and enjoyable musical activity that may have positive impacts on human communication. However, evidence of an impact of singing on speech articulation is still scarce, yet understanding the effects of vocal training on speech production could provide a model for treating people with speech deficits. The aim of this study was to examine speech production in younger and older adults with or without amateur singing experience.
Method
Thirty-eight amateur singers (aged 20–87 years, 23 women and 15 men) and 40 nonmusician active controls (aged 23–88 years, 19 women and 21 men) were recruited. A set of tasks were used to evaluate the oral motor sphere: two voice production tasks, a passage reading task, and a modified diadochokinetic (DDK) rates task performed at a natural rhythm and as quickly as possible.
Results
Our results show that older age was associated with lower reading rate, lower articulation rate, and articulation rate variability in the DDK task, as well as reduced accuracy for the phonologically complex stimuli. Most importantly, our results show an advantage for singers over cognitively active nonsingers in terms of articulatory accuracy in the most challenging situations.
Conclusion
This result suggests extended maximal performance capacities in amateur singers perhaps resulting from the articulatory efforts required during singing.
Supplemental Material
https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24274813
Healthy aging is associated with extensive changes in brain structure and physiology, with impacts on cognition and communication. The “mental exercise hypothesis” proposes that certain lifestyle factors such as singing—perhaps the most universal and accessible music-making activity—can affect cognitive functioning and reduce cognitive decline in aging, but the neuroplastic mechanisms involved remain unclear. To address this question, we examined the association between age and resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) in 84 healthy singers and nonsingers in five networks, auditory, speech, language, default mode, and dorsal attention, and its relationship to auditory cognitive aging. Participants underwent cognitive testing and fMRI. Our results show that RSFC is not systematically lower with aging and that connectivity patterns vary between singers and nonsingers. Furthermore, our results show that RSFC of the precuneus in the default mode network was associated with auditory cognition. In these regions, lower RSFC was associated with better auditory cognitive performance for both singers and nonsingers. Our results show, for the first time, that basic brain physiology differs in singers and nonsingers and that some of these differences are associated with cognitive performance.
Objectives:
Cognitive aging is a lifelong process with implications for Alzheimer's disease and dementia. This study aims to fill major gaps in research on the natural history of and social disparities in aging-related cognitive decline over the life span.
Methods:
We conducted integrative data analysis of four large U.S. population-based longitudinal studies of individuals aged 12 to 105 followed over two decades and modeled age trajectories of cognitive function in multiple domains.
Results:
We found evidence for the onset of cognitive decline in the 4th decade of life, varying gender differences with age, and persistent disadvantage among non-Hispanic Blacks, Hispanics, and those without college education. We further found improvement in cognitive function across 20th century birth cohorts but widening social inequalities in more recent cohorts.
Discussion:
These findings advance an understanding of early life origins of dementia risk and invite future research on strategies for promoting cognitive health for all Americans.
The concept of reserve has been developed to account for the discontinuity between the extent of brain damage at its clinical manifestation in the form of cognitive decline or dementia. In this chapter, we discuss contributors to cognitive reserve from various stages of the life-course, including childhood, early adulthood, middle age, and late life. Evidence from observational studies as well as intervention trials is presented and assessed. We conclude by arguing that reserve formation in dementia risk is a life-course process whereby baseline cognitive abilities are subjected to modulation by subsequent experiences at diverse stages over the entire life-course. Variations among individuals in their ability to withstand age-related brain changes are ultimately dependent on their life-time accumulation of mental, physical, and lifestyle inputs into cognitive reserve.KeywordsReserveCognitive reserveBrain reserveDementiaLife-courseEducationOccupational attainmentChildhood cognitive abilitySocial networksLeisure activities
Focus on aging as a process vs. (old) age as a state of life. How do needs for supporting information and information tools change through the years of a person's adult life? Of special interest in the context of successful aging are innovations that are better for all adults but work even better for people as they age. To identify innovations that “age well”, begin by routinely sampling across a spectrum of adult ages, both in studies of current tool use (e.g., observations, interviews, surveys) and design alternatives. As a further step, cross age with other factors. Less formal methods involving forms of group deliberation can also elucidate age-related changes in the landscape of information need. A focus on the process of aging (vs. “old age”) is inclusive of people across the decades of their adult lives.
Introduction:
Higher occupational complexity has been linked to favorable cognitive outcomes, but rarely examined in racially and ethnically diverse populations.
Methods:
In a diverse cohort (n = 1536), linear mixed-effects models estimated associations between main lifetime occupational complexity and domain-specific cognitive decline (z-standardized). Occupational complexity with data, people, and things were classified using the Dictionary of Occupational Titles.
Results:
For occupational complexity with data, highest tertile (vs. lowest) was associated with higher baseline executive function (β = 0.11; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.00-0.22) and slower annual rate of decline (β = 0.03; 95% CI 0.01-0.06), and higher baseline semantic memory (β = 0.14; 95% CI 0.04-0.25). Highest tertile of occupational complexity with people was associated with higher baseline executive function (β = 0.29; 95% CI 0.18-0.40), verbal episodic memory (β = 0.12; 95% CI 0.00-0.24), and semantic memory (β = 0.23; 95% CI 0.12-0.34).
Discussion:
In a diverse cohort, higher occupational complexity is associated with better cognition. Findings should be verified in larger cohorts.
Highlight:
Few studies have examined associations of occupational complexity with cognition in diverse populations. Racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately exposed to lower occupational complexity. Occupational complexity with data and people are associated with better cognition.
Adult intellectual development is known to produce a pattern of average age-related changes differing by whether the ability in question is dominated by acquired knowledge (crystallized intelligence) or by processes involved in reasoning and memory, especially working memory (fluid intelligence). Other differentiable abilities, like spatial visualization, also show average age-related decline. Both classes of abilities have shown substantial generational differences, with more recently born individuals showing better performance on tests of intellectual abilities. Genetic influences play a role in determining age-related change, but other factors are also at play. There is substantial stability of individual differences in intellectual abilities, showing that aging does not radically alter profiles of abilities seen in early adulthood. There are individual differences in magnitudes of age-related changes that are exacerbated by nonnormative age-related diseases (e.g., cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes), life events, health-degrading behaviors (e.g., tobacco use), and late-life terminal decline. Individual differences in rates of age-related change are partly general (manifested for all abilities) but also ability specific (different persons showing decline on some abilities but not others), perhaps indicating multiple influences on age-related changes. At present it is unknown how much of the observed age-related decline could be mitigated by lifestyle and behavioral interventions prior to the period of late-life disablement. Age-related changes in fluid intelligence do not necessarily translate into functional impairment in demanding everyday activities, given the critical role that knowledge and experience play in self-regulation.
The 'Flynn effect' refers to the massive increase in IQ test scores over the course of the twentieth century. Does it mean that each generation is more intelligent than the last? Does it suggest how each of us can enhance our own intelligence? Professor Flynn is finally ready to give his own views. He asks what intelligence really is and gives a surprising and illuminating answer. This expanded paperback edition includes three important new essays. The first contrasts the art of writing cognitive history with the science of measuring intelligence and reports data. The second outlines how we might get a complete theory of intelligence, and the third details Flynn's reservations about Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. A fascinating book that bridges the gulf separating our minds from those of our ancestors a century ago, and makes an important contribution to our understanding of human intelligence.
People involved in scientific research should keep their cognitive status high since this is necessary for preserving their intellectual potential and maintaining their work efficiency. Given that, it seems important to determine what impacts scientific work might have on mental health, to estimate potential disorders and to develop a strategy aimed at preventing cognitive impairments. Our research goals were to perform screening assessment of executive functions, to examine signs of premature ageing and to explore behavioral and social risk factors among Russian researchers. We accomplished a cross-sectional study with 213 researchers employed by state scientific institutions in Moscow participating in it; they were 116 women and 97 men aged from 23 to 78 years (their average age was 45.48 ± 15.33 years). As a result, we established that risk factors causing a decline in professional efficiency were rather frequent among the participants. Probable cognitive disorders were detected in 9.85 % of them and we should note that these disorders were not age-related. We detected signs of senile asthenia in 3.28 % of the participants and senile depression in 2.34 %. Two thirds of the participants had subclinical depression (74.6 %). Only one fifth of the respondents (19.71 %, n = 42) did not have any cognitive impairments, asthenic syndrome, or depression. A quarter of the researchers (25.34 %) were not sufficiently committed to healthy lifestyle. Low physical activity established for 79.3 % of the respondents was the major risk factor; among others, we can mention irrational nutrition, primarily among those researchers who worked with students; poor stress management skills among physicians who combined clinical practice with science; difficulties in interpersonal relationships among people who dealt solely with research. It is necessary to implement corporate programs aimed at prevention and rehabilitations for researchers in order to preserve their scientific activity and professional efficiency as well as to extend their professional longevity
We study the effect of unemployment on cognitive abilities among individuals aged between 50 and 65 in Europe. To this end, we exploit plant closures and use flexible event-study estimations together with an experimentally elicited measure of fluid intelligence, namely word recall. We find that, within a time period of around eight years after the event of unemployment, cognitive abilities only deteriorate marginally – the effects are insignificant both in statistical and economic terms. We do, however, find significant effects of late-career unemployment on the likelihood to leave the labor force, and short-term effects on mental health problems such as depression and sleep problems.
Preserving attention abilities is of great concern to older adults who are motivated to maintain their quality of life. Both cognitive and physical fitness interventions have been utilized in intervention studies to assess maintenance and enhancement of attention abilities in seniors, and a coupling of these approaches is a compelling strategy to buttress both cognitive and physical health in a time- and resource-effective manner. With this perspective, we created a closed-loop, motion-capture video game (Body-Brain Trainer: BBT) that adapts a player’s cognitive and physical demands in an integrated approach, thus creating a personalized and cohesive experience across both domains. Older adults who engaged in two months of BBT improved on both physical fitness (measures of blood pressure and balance) and attention (behavioral and neural metrics of attention on a continuous performance task) outcome measures beyond that of an expectancy matched, active, placebo control group, with maintenance of improved attention performance evidenced 1 year later. Following training, the BBT group’s improvement on the attention outcome measure exceeded performance levels attained by an untrained group of 20-year olds, and showed age-equilibration of a neural signature of attention shown to decline with age: midline frontal theta power. These findings highlight the potential benefits of an integrated, cognitive-physical, closed-loop training platform as a powerful tool for both cognitive and physical enhancement in older adults.
Sedentary behavior (SB) is associated with cardiometabolic disease and mortality, but its association with dementia is currently unclear. This study investigates whether SB is associated with incident dementia regardless of engagement in physical activity (PA). A total of 146,651 participants from the UK Biobank who were 60 years or older and did not have a diagnosis of dementia (mean [SD] age: 64.59 [2.84] years) were included. Self-reported leisure-time SBs were divided into two domains: time spent watching television (TV) or time spent using a computer. A total of 3,507 individuals were diagnosed with all-cause dementia over a mean follow-up of 11.87 (±1.17) years. In models adjusted for a wide range of covariates, including time spent in PA, time spent watching TV was associated with increased risk of incident dementia (HR [95% CI] = 1.24 [1.15 to 1.32]) and time spent using a computer was associated with decreased risk of incident dementia (HR [95% CI] = 0.85 [0.81 to 0.90]). In joint associations with PA, TV time and computer time remained significantly associated with dementia risk at all PA levels. Reducing time spent in cognitively passive SB (i.e., TV time) and increasing time spent in cognitively active SB (i.e., computer time) may be effective behavioral modification targets for reducing risk of dementia regardless of engagement in PA.
Age differences in performance on memory measures and in subjective ratings of memory adequacy
were examined in the context of 12 social, personality, adjustment, and lifestyle measures. Participants
were 285 men and women, aged 65 to 93, of middle- and working-class backgrounds. A series of
multivariate and univariate analyses revealed that a large proportion of the age differences and virtually
all of the social-class differences on memory measures could be accounted for by contextual variables,
with education, intellectual activity, extroversion, neuroticism, and lie scores (on the Eysenck Personality
Inventory) all accounting for more of the variance in memory performance than did age. Self-rated
memory adequacy was not correlated with performance, and although the expected finding of lower
ratings by older participants was obtained with the working-class group, the opposite was true for the
middle-class group. Implications of these results for understanding age differences in memory are
discussed.
The authors reviewed studies of cognitive proficiency and night performance. Age-group differences were found in pilots in perceptual motor skills and memory and, to a lesser extent, in attention and problem solving. Flight experience does not alter this age-related decline, with the possible exception of the metacognitive skill of time sharing. Age-group differences in flight performance are most evident in the secondary task of air traffic control communications. Age-related differences in current measures of pilot cognition are minimally predictive of primary measures of flight performance (flight simulation and accident rates). A model of cognition and flight performance is proposed involving higher order factors that tap into pilot knowledge structure, including mental workload and workload management, mental models, and situation awareness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The influence of expertise and task factors on age differences in a simulated pilot–Air Traffic Control (ATC) communication task was examined. Young, middle-aged, and older pilots and nonpilots listened to ATC messages that described a route through an airspace, during which they referred to a chart of this airspace. Participants read back each message and then answered a probe question about the route. It was found that pilots read back messages more accurately than nonpilots, and younger participants were more accurate than older participants. Age differences were not reduced for pilots. Pilots and younger participants also answered probes more accurately, suggesting that they were better able to interpret the ATC messages in terms of the chart in order to create a situation model of the flight. The findings suggest that expertise benefits occur for adults of all ages. High levels of flying experience among older pilots (as compared with younger pilots) helped to buffer age-related declines in cognitive resources, thus providing evidence for the mediating effects of experience on age differences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A questionnaire designed to assess experience with activities presumed to require spatial visualization abilities, and psychometric tests of these abilities, were administered to 383 adults ranging from 20 to 83 years of age. Although research participants varied considerably in the amount of self-reported experience, statistical control of experience resulted in relatively modest attenuations of the relations between age and spatial visualization performance. These findings seem inconsistent with a strong disuse interpretation of cognitive aging phenomena and suggest that at least some age-related differences in cognitive functioning are independent of the amount of experience with relevant activities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Three studies were conducted to investigate effects related to age and experience on measures of spatial visualization ability. All research participants were college-educated men; those in the experienced group were practicing or recently retired architects. The major results of the studies were (a) that increased age was found to be associated with lower levels of performance on several tests of spatial visualization and (b) that this was true both for unselected adults and for adults with extensive spatial visualization experience. These findings seem to suggest that age-related effects in some aspects of cognitive functioning may be independent of experiential influences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The authors respond to issues raised about data from the Victoria Longitudinal Study and further explain concerns regarding evidence for the engagement hypothesis. Discussion focuses on the use of social stratification variables such as occupational prestige and educational attainment as measures of an engaged lifestyle. It is argued that (a) tests of the hypothesis should focus on the relationship of behaviors and activities thought to be proximal beneficial influences on adult cognitive development; (b) persuasive evidence for engagement effects from existing data require demonstration of effects of intellectual activities that are statistically independent of associations of social status with intellectual and cognitive development; and (c) currently available longitudinal data do not provide definitive evidence regarding the benefits of an engaged lifestyle on cognitive change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Need for cognition in contemporary literature refers to an individual's tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive endeavors. Individual differences in need for cognition have been the focus of investigation in over 100 empirical studies. This literature is reviewed, covering the theory and history of this variable, measures of interindividual variations in it, and empirical relationships between it and personality variables, as well as individuals' tendencies to seek and engage in effortful cognitive activity and enjoy cognitively effortful circumstances. The article concludes with discussions of an elaborated theory of the variable, including antecedent conditions; interindividual variations in it related to the manner information is acquired or processed to guide perceptions, judgments, and behavior; and the relationship between it and the 5-factor model of personality structure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
One hundred thirty-three college students (mean age = 19.1 years) and 49 older individuals (mean age = 79.9 years) completed 2 general knowledge tasks, a vocabulary task, a working memory task, a syllogistic reasoning task, and several measures of exposure to print. A series of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that when measures of exposure to print were used as control variables, the positive relationships between age and vocabulary, and age and declarative knowledge, were eliminated. Within each of the age groups, exposure to print was a significant predictor of vocabulary and declarative knowledge even after differences in working memory, general ability, and educational level were controlled. These results support the theory of fluid-crystallized intelligence and suggest a more prominent role for exposure to print in theories of individual differences in knowledge acquisition and maintenance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The effects of education and continued intellectual engagement on age-associated cognitive change were investigated in a sample of 102 members of the professional and college communities in the metro Atlanta Georgia area (ages 30–76). All participants were administered a 60-minute battery that measured different aspects of memory, intelligence and cognitive performance. Age-associated declines in performance were detected on the digit symbol measure of intelligence. Conversely, positive but non-significant trends were detected on the picture completion, arithmetic and similarities subtests. Age effects were also noted on some measures of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and both versions of the Trail Making Test. The findings suggest that at least among the highly educated, certain cognitive abilities may receive some degree of amelioration as a consequence of continued intellectual engagement. However, the effects may be associated more with compensation rather than protection against the effects of ageing. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The purpose of this study was to examine the hypothesis of whether early education and/or maintaining intellectual activities over the life-course have the power to protect against cognitive impairment even in extremely old adults. Ninety centenarians from the population-based Heidelberg Centenarian Study were assessed with a modified version of the Mini Mental State Exam (MMSE). Data about education, occupational status, and life-long intellectual activities in four selected domains were obtained. Results demonstrated that 52% of the sample showed mild-to-severe cognitive impairment. Analyzing the influence of early education, occupational status, and intellectual activities on cognitive status we applied several (logistic) regression analyses. Results revealed independent, significant and strong influence of both formal school education and intellectual activities on the cognitive status in very late life, even after controlling for occupational status. However, about one fourth of the effect of early education on cognitive status was exerted indirectly via the assessed intellectual activities. In summary, the present study provides first evidence for the conclusion that even with regard to cognitive performance in very old age, both early education and life-long intellectual activities seem to be of importance.
Tested 64 males and females in their 20s and 60s, with high school and doctoral-level educations, on a variety of memory tasks. There were sizable age decrements in word recall and recognition independent of education. Age differences in the pattern of performance on incidental and intentional recall and recognition tests and in semantic elaboration suggested that older Ss suffer from associative processing production deficiencies and inefficiencies. No age differences in number of overt free associations, responses on the memory questionnaire, study time, reported strategy use, accuracy at memory prediction, accuracy at confidence rating, intrusions in recall, or response criterion in recognition suggested that age differences in word memory were not related to amount of semantic processing, knowledge about memory, inclination to strategically engage in activities to enhance retention, memory monitoring, or memory selection or decision. There were age increments in fact recall and recognition, also independent of education. These trends may have been related to age differences in preexperimental familiarity with materials, but also suggested limitations in the generalizability of findings from typical laboratory tasks. There were weak but positive relations between poor memory and both poor health and acceptance of "aging" roles. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
The effectiveness of memory training for the elderly was examined through a meta-analysis of pre-to-posttest gains on episodic memory tasks in healthy subjects aged 60 or above. Pre-to-posttest gains were found to be significantly larger in training groups (0.73 SD, k = 49) than in both control (0.38 SD, k = 10) and placebo (0.37 SD, k = 8) groups. Treatment gains in training groups were negatively affected by age of participants and duration of training sessions and positively affected by group treatment, pretraining, and memory-related interventions. No differences in treatment gain were obtained as a function of type of mnemonic taught nor the kind of pretraining used.
Age differences in performance on memory measures and in subjective ratings of memory adequacy were examined in the context of 12 social, personality, adjustment, and lifestyle measures. Participants were 285 men and women, aged 65 to 93, of middle- and working-class backgrounds. A series of multivariate and univariate analyses revealed that a large proportion of the age differences and virtually all of the social-class differences on memory measures could be accounted for by contextual variables, with education, intellectual activity, extroversion, neuroticism, and lie scores (on the Eysenck Personality Inventory) all accounting for more of the variance in memory performance than did age. Self-rated memory adequacy was not correlated with performance, and although the expected finding of lower ratings by older participants was obtained with the working-class group, the opposite was true for the middle-class group. Implications of these results for understanding age differences in memory are discussed.
This study examined the effects of abilities as a young adult, an engaged lifestyle, personality, age, and health on continuity and change in intellectual abilities from early to late adulthood. A battery of measures, including a verbal and nonverbal intelligence test, was given to 326 Canadian army veterans. Archival data provided World War Two enlistment scores on the same intelligence test for this sample: Results indicated relative stability of intellectual scores across 40 years, with increases in vocabulary and decreases in arithmetic, verbal analogies, and nonverbal skills. Young adult intelligence was the most important determinant of older adult performance. Predictors for verbal intelligence were consistent with an engagement model of intellectual maintenance but also indicated the importance of introversion-extraversion and age. Nonverbal intelligence in late life was predicted by young adult nonverbal scores, age, health, and introversion-extraversion.
Traditional theories of aging claim that basic processing speed and memory capacities show inevitable decline with increasing age. Recent research, however, has shown that older experts in some domains are able to maintain their superior performance into old age, but even they display the typical age-related decline in performance on psychometric tests of fluid intelligence. The study of expert performance shows that adults retain the capacity to acquire and maintain performance with the appropriate type of training and practice, even speeded actions and many physiological adaptations. In fact, experts' performance keeps improving for several decades into adulthood and typically reaches its peak between 30 and 50 years of age. The experts can then maintain their attained performance level into old age by regular deliberate practice. Much of the observed decline in older adults' performance can be attributed to age-related reductions in engagement in domain-related activities - in particular, regular deliberate practice.
OBJECTIVES: To compare the longitudinal changes in maximal aerobic capacity (VO(2)max) in healthy middle aged and older athletes and sedentary men. DESIGN: A cohort study with mean follow-up of 8.7 years (range 4.0-12.8). SETTING: Outpatient research at a tertiary hospital. PARTICIPANTS: Forty-two healthy, middle aged, and older athletes (initial age 64 +/- 1 year) and 47 healthy sedentary men of comparable age recruited for research studies. MEASUREMENTS: VO(2)max during a maximal treadmill test. RESULTS: At baseline, the cross-sectional rates of decline in VO(2)max with age (slope) were virtually identical in the athletes and sedentary men (-0.42 versus -0.43 mL(.)kg(-1.)min(-1.)year(-1)). At follow-up, the VO(2)max had declined by 11.9 +/- 1.1 mL(.)kg(-1.)min(-1) (22%) in the athletes, a crude average rate of -1.4 +/- 0.14 mL(.)kg(-1.)min(-1.)year(-1). By comparison, the VO(2)max declined by 4.4 +/- 0.6 mL(.)kg(-1.)min(-1) (14%) in the sedentary men, a crude average rate of change of -0.48 +/- 0.07 mL(.)kg(-1.)min(-1.)year(-1). Therefore, the observed absolute rate of longitudinal decline in VO(2)max in the athletes was triple that of the sedentary men (P = .001) and significantly greater than the decline predicted by their baseline cross-sectional data (P = .001). Post hoc analyses of the longitudinal data in the athletes based on the training regimens over the follow-up period demonstrated that the seven individuals who continued to train vigorously ("high training") had no significant decline in VO(2)max (0.28% change in VO(2)max per year). By contrast, the VO(2)max declined by 2.6% per year in the 'moderate training" group (N = 21), 4.6% per year in the "low training" group (N = 13), and 4.7% per year in the two individuals who developed cardiovascular disease. CONCLUSION: The longitudinal decline in VO(2)max in older male endurance athletes is highly dependent upon the continued magnitude of the training stimulus. The majority of the athletes reduced their training levels over time, resulting in longitudinal reductions in VO(2)max two to three times as large as those predicted by cross-sectional analyses or those observed longitudinally in their sedentary peers.
Pianists of a wide experience and age range were tested on measures of musical memory and musical perceptual speed to better understand the effects of experience on age-cognition relations. Experience-related attenuation might be in the form of an Age x Experience interaction or in the form of a "confounding" of age and experience such that positive age-experience relations offset negative age-cognition relations. It was predicted that the former, considered evidence for disuse interpretations of aging, would be likely to emerge in tasks with strong experience effects and strong age-related declines among inexperienced individuals. However, in no case were the interactions of age and experience on the memory or perceptual speed variables significant. There was, however, evidence that high levels of experience in the older participants partially attenuated the negative effects of age on the memory and perceptual speed tasks.
To make a convincing argument that cognitive stimulation moderates age trends in cognition there must be (a) a negative relation between age and level of cognitive stimulation, (b) a positive relation between level of cognitive stimulation and level of cognitive functioning, and (c) evidence of an interaction between age and cognitive stimulation in the prediction of cognitive functioning. These conditions were investigated in a study in which 204 adults between 20 and 91 years of age completed an activity inventory and performed a variety of cognitive tasks. Only the 1st condition received empirical support, and, thus, the results of this study provide little evidence for the hypothesis that cognitive stimulation preserves or enhances cognitive functioning that would otherwise decline.
This study found that an intercohort decline in vocabulary at all or most educational levels in the United States in recent years was closely related to an intercohort decline in newspaper reading. The decline in newspaper reading, in turn, may have resulted largely from an increase in television watching, but other influences, such as those from women's increased participation in the labor force, seem to have been involved as well. Other types of reading apparently declined in tandem with newspaper reading, and thus differences in reading are the most promising explanation for differences in the verbal ability of the various cohorts.
We searched MEDLINE (Ovid Technologies, 1966 to June 2004; English language) for terms describing physician experience (keywords: physician age, clinician age, physician experience, clinician experience), physician demographic characteristics (keywords: physician characteristics, clinician characteristics), practice variation (subject heading: physician's practice patterns), and performance in various domains (subject headings: clinical competence, health knowledge, attitudes and practice, outcomes assessment[health care]; keywords: knowledge, guideline adherence, appropriateness, outcomes). We retrieved potentially relevant articles and reviewed their reference lists to identify studies that our search strategy may have missed (Figure 1). We also searched our personal archives to identify additional studies. We included studies if they 1) were original reports providing empirical results; 2) measured knowledge, guideline adherence, mortality, or some other quality-of-care process or outcome; and 3) included years since graduation from medical school, years since certification, or physician age as a potential explanatory variable. We excluded studies if they described practice variation that is not known to affect quality of care (for example, assessed test-ordering behavior in clinical situations where optimal practice is unknown) or evaluated the performance of fewer than 20 physicians. For studies that examined several different end points, we included only those outcomes that are linked to knowledge or quality of care.
We used a standardized data extraction form to obtain data on study design and relevant results. We categorized studies into 4 groups on the basis of whether they evaluated knowledge (for example, knowledge of indications for blood transfusion), adherence to standards of care for diagnosis, screening, or prevention (for example, adherence to preventive care guidelines), adherence to standards of care for therapy (for example, appropriate prescribing), or health outcomes (for example, mortality). We classified the results of each study into 6 groups on the basis of the nature of the association between length of time in practice or age and performance: consistently negative, partially negative, no effect, mixed effect, partially positive, and consistently positive. “Consistently negative” studies were those for which all reported outcomes demonstrated a statistically significant decrease in performance with increasing years in practice or age. “Partially negative” studies showed decreasing performance with increasing experience for some outcomes and no association for others. We used similar definitions for “consistently positive” and “partially positive” studies. “Concave” studies found performance to initially improve with years in practice or age, then peak, and subsequently decrease.
Results from a study of 263 male players at 48 levels of expertise in the game of GO, and ranging from 18 to 78 years of age, suggest a need to revise the extended theory of fluid (Gf) and crystallized (Gc) intelligence to take account of continued development of intelligence throughout adulthood. The extended theory of Gf–Gc is based on evidence that Gf, short-term apprehension and retrieval (SAR) and cognitive speed (Gs), decline with age over adulthood. Results from a number of studies, however, suggest that within the domains of expertise, high levels of reasoning, feats of memory and speeded thinking similar to Gf are displayed by older adults. To explore this hypothesis, measures of reasoning, memory and cognitive speed were constructed within the domain of expertise related to playing the complex game of GO. Analysis of the structure of the GO-embedded measures and standard measures of Gf (SAR and Gs) indicated a form of short-term memory — labeled expertise working memory (EWM) — that had substantially wider span than the short-term working memory (STWM) of SAR. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that long-term working memory is built up during the course of developing high levels of expertise. The results also suggest that a form of expertise deductive reasoning (EDR), utilizing EWM and incorporating large stores of knowledge, is distinct from Gf. Expertise cognitive speed (ECS), however, was not found to be reliably distinct from the Gs factor. Analyses of cross-sectional age differences indicate an age-related decline in both EDR and EWM, but as higher levels of expertise are reached, age-related decline does not occur. To the extent that there is continued press to advance expertise throughout adulthood, there may be improvement, not decline, in the EDR and EWM forms of intelligence.
Aging is associated with decline in a multitude of cognitive processes and brain functions. However, a growing body of literature suggests that age-related decline in cognition can sometimes be reduced through experience, cognitive training, and other interventions such as fitness training. Research on cognitive training and expertise has suggested that age-related cognitive sparing is often quite narrow, being observed only on tasks and skills similar to those on which individuals have been trained. Furthermore, training and expertise benefits are often realized only after extensive practice with specific training strategies. Like cognitive training, fitness training has narrow effects on cognitive processes, but in the case of fitness training, the most substantial effects are observed for executive-control processes.
High intelligence has been claimed to ‘compensate’ age-related changes in intelligence and memory. In the present study, elderly eminent academics and young PhD students were compared to elderly and young manual workers. The subjects were required to complete both experimental and standard tests of intelligence and memory. Age differences were reduced in high ability subjects on tests of geometric and verbal analogies but not on tests of ‘ecologically valid’ problem solving and memory. Significant reductions in memory and cognitive performance in an elite elderly sample were confirmed.
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the longitudinal change in (V) over dotO(2max) and HRmax in male and female master endurance runners and to compare these changes based upon gender, age, and change in training volume. Methods: Eighty-six male (53.9 +/- 1.1 yr) and 49 female (49.1 +/- 1.2 yr) master endurance runners were tested an average of 8.5 yr apart. Subjects were grouped by age at first visit, change in and change in training volume. Measurements included body composition by hydrostatic weighing, maximal exercise testing on a treadmill, and training history by questionnaire. Data were analyzed by ANOVA and multiple regression. Results: (V) over dotO(2max) and HRmax declined significantly regardless of gender or age group (P < 0.05). The rate of change in (V) over dotO(2max) by age group ranged from -1% to -4.6% per year for men and -0.5% to 2.4% per year for women. Men with the greatest loss in (V) over dotO(2max) had the greatest loss in LBM (-2.8 +/- 0.7 kg), whereas women with the greatest loss in (V) over dotO(2max) demonstrated the greatest change in training volume (-24.1 +/- 3.0 km.wk(-1)). Additionally, women with the greatest loss in (V) over dotO(2max) (-9.6 +/- 2.6 mL.kg(-1).min(-1)) did not replace estrogen after menopause independent of age. HRmax change did not differ by (V) over dotO(2max) change or training volume change in either gender. Conclusions: In conclusion, these data suggest that (V) over dotO(2max) declines in male and female master athletes at a rate similar to or greater than that expected in sedentary older adults. Additionally, these data suggest that maintenance of LBM and (V) over dotO(2max) were associated in men, whereas in women, estrogen replacement and maintenance of training volume were associated with maintained (V) over dotO(2max).
Professors from the University of California at Berkeley were administered a 90-min rest battery of cognitive performance that included measures of reaction time, paired associate learning, working memory, and prose recall. Age effects among the professors were observed on tests of reaction time, paired-associate memory, and some aspects of working memory. Age effects were not observed on measures of proactive interference and prose recall, though age-related declines are generally observed in standard groups of elderly individuals. The findings suggest that age-related decrements in certain cognitive functions may be mitigated in intelligent, cognitively active individuals.
The present report is derived from a community survey conducted in 19 villages of Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. The population was entirely native-born. The technique involved the use of a free motion-picture performance and supplementary house-to-house visiting. Army Alpha tests were administered under one or the other of these two situations. In these ways data were collected on Army Alpha scores for 1191 subjects between the ages of 10 and 60 years of age. The developmental curve thus secured for the total Alpha test "may be summarized as involving linear growth to about 16 years, with a negative acceleration beyond 16 to a peak between the ages of 18 and 21. A decline follows which is much more gradual than the curve of growth but which by the age of 55 involves a recession to the 14 year level." The curves for sub-tests within the Alpha show important differences among themselves. The subjects from more rural districts made consistently lower scores than those from villages. A slight superiority of females over males was observed. A differential rate of growth (as between bright and dull adolescents) is found, but there seems to be no evidence for a differential duration of growth. The decline of ability beyond age 21 "is not due to errors of sampling" nor to "faulty administration of the Alpha" nor to "failure of motivation, remoteness of schooling, lack of understanding of directions, disproportion in attention to accuracy versus speed, lack of practice in the test functions, failing hearing or failing eyesight." In fact, "the information tests of the Alpha present an unfair advantage to those in the upper age brackets." A bibliography of 33 titles is appended. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The outgrowth of an earlier study, this investigation was intended to determine the abilities and achievements of adults who took collegiate courses offered through the general extension divisions of seven geographically separated state universities. From the results of general aptitude tests and examinations administered, and from interviews with extension directors and instructors, certain conclusions were developed. Extension students appeared to be socially, educationally, and economically selected. Their chief reason for enrolment was the hope of advancement in their work. They were approximately equal to regular university students in measured "intelligence" and reading. Within the group the women seemed to be more able than the men. Teaching problems related to extension courses are discussed. A final chapter reviews various studies of the relation of learning and "intelligence" to age, pointing toward the probability that differential decline in abilities may be attributable largely to use and disuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The need for a psychology of maturity is stressed. There is a necessary association of life with age, but until recently the earlier ages have been mainly stressed, to the exclusion of maturity, later maturity and senescence. Certain special obstacles exist, as the securing of representative subjects, the necessity of relying on single samples of performance, and the selection of mental processes to be studied. The author gives the results of the Stanford Later Maturity Study, begun in 1930 and continued in 1932, in the earlier part of which 863 persons were used, 335 males and 528 females, age range from 6 to 95 years; and in the later, 1600 persons, 800 of each sex. Each subject was tested individually for four consecutive half-hour sessions. The functions tested were perception, motion, memory, imagination, the capacities for comparing, combining and abstracting, and affects, attitudes, and interests. The age groups were: 10-17 years; 18-29; 30-49; 50-69; 70-89. (1) Visual acuity declines consistently from 100 in the teens to 46 in old age, while perceptual span rises to late adolescence, then declines slightly to 60 and rapidly thereafter; (2) motor abilities fare better than commonly thought, declining to about 70% of the maximum, which is reached between 20 and 30 years of age; (3) memory is at a maximum in the 18-29 period and declines to 55; imagination, as tested by the Rorschach figures, is relatively stable; (4) comparison and judgment decline very slightly; and (5) combination and abstraction, as found in intelligence tests, show more decline in speed of response than in accuracy. It is the abilities that rest close to the physiological which decline most and mature earliest. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This book presents a survey of the literature and a mass of new data on quantitative and qualitative changes in learning ability between the ages of about fifteen and forty-five. The experimental work consisted of the following items: measuring the progress of Sing Sing prisoners who were taking subjects in the prison school; testing the learning ability of prisoners on number-letter substitution and on addition; testing university students on ability to learn to write with the wrong hand and on ability to learn Esperanto; measuring the progress of pupils in evening high schools; measuring the progress of pupils taking typewriting and shorthand in secretarial schools. Nearly all data from the experiments show a maximum at twenty to twenty-four years and a gradual drop from that time on. The results are made comparable by calculating, for each experiment, the percentage which the gain in learning by the subjects thirty-five years of age or over is of the gain by the subjects twenty to twenty-four years of age. Testimony gathered from 99 persons shows that almost anything is learnable up to the age of fifty or later and that most people expect greater increase in difficulty for some kinds of learning than for others as age advances. Older people show slightly less aptitude in dealing with novel tests than young ones. In discussing practical applications, the relative advantages of learning in childhood and adulthood are listed. Loss in learning ability with age is often compensated for by added incentives, better selection of material, and other factors. Many charts and tables supplement the text. Over one-third of the book is devoted to appendices which present the data in detail. There is a bibliography of about 65 titles. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Data from 33 separate studies were combined to create an aggregate data set consisting of 16 cognitive variables and 6832 different individuals who ranged between 18 and 95 years of age. Analyses were conducted to determine where in a hierarchical structure of cognitive abilities individual differences associated with age, gender, education, and self-reported health could be localized. The results indicated that each type of individual difference characteristic exhibited a different pattern of influences within the hierarchical structure, and that aging was associated with four statistically distinct influences; negative influences on a second-order common factor and on first-order speed and memory factors, and a positive influence on a first-order vocabulary factor.
The Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) trial is a randomized, controlled, single-masked trial designed to determine whether cognitive training interventions (memory, reasoning, and speed of information processing), which have previously been found to be successful at improving mental abilities under laboratory or small-scale field conditions, can affect cognitively based measures of daily functioning. Enrollment began during 1998; 2-year follow-up will be completed by January 2002. Primary outcomes focus on measures of cognitively demanding everyday functioning, including financial management, food preparation, medication use, and driving. Secondary outcomes include health-related quality of life, mobility, and health-service utilization. Trial participants (n = 2832) are aged 65 and over, and at entry into the trial, did not have significant cognitive, physical, or functional decline. Because of its size and the carefully developed rigor, ACTIVE may serve as a guide for future behavioral medicine trials of this nature. Control Clin Trials 2001; 22:453–479 Published by Elsevier Science Inc. 2001