Successful aging is an important concept, and one that has been the subject of much research. During the last 15 years, the emphasis of this research has shifted from formulating criteria for successful aging to describing the processes involved in successful aging. The main purpose of the present article is to review psychological models of successful aging. The model of Selective Optimization with Compensation (SOC-model) proves to be one of the leading models in this field. Although evidence about its value is accumulating, we argue that this model mainly focuses on how people react to losses and that proactive coping aimed at preventing potential threats to goals may also be a valuable strategy. We propose that proactive coping may be important for successful aging, since it results in a prolonged availability of resources for optimization and compensation processes and a delay in disengagement from important goals.

This study demonstrates that patients with BED display decision-making deficits on the IGT comparable with other forms of disordered eating. Future research should focus on unravelling the processes underlying the deficits.

The Amsterdam Executive Function Inventory (AEFI) is a newly developed brief self-report questionnaire to assess three important components of the executive aspects of daily-life behavior--that is, Attention, Self-Control and Self-Monitoring, and Planning and Initiative. In a population-based study, the AEFI was administered to N = 6,730 Dutch adolescents aged between 15 and 18 years. Psychometric analyses showed that the construct validity and the reliability of the AEFI were adequate. Educational level and gender affected the different AEFI scale scores. Regression-based normative data that took these demographic influences into account were established, so that the AEFI can be used by clinicians and researchers who need to assess executive aspects of daily-life behavior.

De Groot, R. H. M., Ouwehand, C., & Jolles, J. (2012). Eating the right amount of fish: Inverted U-shape association between fish consumption and cognitive performance and academic achievement in Dutch adolescents. Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes, and Essential Fatty Acids, 86(3), 113-117. doi:10.1016/j.plefa.2012.01.002Fish consumption has shown its benefits for cognitive functioning in the elderly or children with disorders (e.g,, autism, ADHD), but has rarely been investigated in relation to cognitive performance and school performance of healthy adolescents. We executed an observational study in 700 Dutch high school students aged 12-18 years. Fish consumption data, end term grades, scores on the Amsterdam Vocabulary Test, and scores on the Youth Self-Report were collected. Results revealed that 13.6% of the Dutch adolescents never ate fish, 6.4% met national guidelines, 16.9% reached half of the norm, and 63.1% did eat fish but too little to meet at least half of the norm. Analysis of variance, controlled for relevant covariates, showed significant differences between the four fish consumption groups in vocabulary (p= 0.05). A trend for significance was found for end term grades (p= 0.07). Contrast analyses demonstrated significant quadratic associations between fish consumption and vocabulary (p= 0.01) and end term grades (p= 0.01). Thus higher fish intake was associated with more advanced vocabulary and higher end term grades. However, eating more fish than the described norm seemed no longer beneficial

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Relation Between Breakfast Skipping 2 AbstractBreakfast skipping is common in adolescents, but research on the effects of breakfast skipping on school performance is scarce. This current cross-sectional survey study of 605 adolescents aged 11-18 years investigated whether adolescents who habitually skip breakfast have lower end of term grades than adolescents who eat breakfast daily. Additionally, the roles of sleep behavior, namely chronotype, and attention were explored. Results showed that breakfast skippers performed lower at school than breakfast eaters. The findings were similar for younger and older adolescents, and for boys and girls. Adolescents with an evening chronotype were more likely to skip breakfast, but chronotype was unrelated to school performance. Furthermore, attention problems partially mediated the relation between breakfast skipping and school performance. This large-scale study emphasizes the importance of breakfast as a determinant for school performance. The results give reason to investigate the mechanisms underlying the relation between skipping breakfast, attention and school performance in more detail. Proper nutrition is commonly believed to be important for school performance; it is considered to be an essential prerequisite for the potential to learn in children (Taras, 2005). In the western world, where most school-aged children are well nourished, emphasis is placed on eating breakfast for optimal school performance. Eating breakfast might be particularly important during adolescence. Adolescents have high nutritional needs, due to brain development processes and physical growth, while at the same time they have the highest rate of breakfast skipping among school-aged children (Hoyland, Dye, & Lawton, 2009;Rampersaud, 2009). However, not much is known about the effects of breakfast skipping on their school performance. Reviews indicate that only few studies have investigated the relationship between breakfast skipping and school performance in adolescents (Ells et al., 2008;Hoyland et al., 2009;Rampersaud, 2009;Taras, 2005). Therefore, the current study investigated the relation between habitual breakfast consumption and school performance in adolescents attending secondary school (age range 11-18 years). In addition, we explored two potentially important mechanisms underlying this relationship by investigating the roles of sleep behavior and attention.Depending on the definition of breakfast skipping, 10-30% of the adolescents (age range 11-18 years) can be classified as breakfast skippers (Rampersaud, Pereira, Girard, Adams, & Metzl, 2005). Adolescent breakfast skippers are more often girls and more often have a lower level of education (Keski-Rahkonen, Kaprio, Rissanen, Virkkunen, & Rose, 2003;Rampersaud et al., 2005;Shaw, 1998). Adolescent breakfast skippers are characterized by an unhealthy lifestyle, with behaviors such as smoking, irregular exercise, alcohol and drug use. They make more unhealthy food choices and have a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) than breakfast eaters...

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The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a shortened version of the Raven Standard Progressive Matrices (SPM) under an item response theory framework (the one- and two-parameter logistic models). The shortened Raven SPM was administered to N = 453 cognitively healthy adults aged between 24 and 83 years. The IQ point estimates that were obtained under the one- and two-parameter logistic models were very similar (r = .97), but the two-parameter logistic-based test version had a higher measurement precision. The results showed that older age and being female were associated with a lower Raven SPM test performance. A user-friendly computer program was provided to facilitate the scoring and norming of the shortened Raven SPM under the different frameworks.