Interpretation of differential deficits: The case of aging and mental arithmetic.

Salthouse, Timothy A.; Coon, Vicky E.

doi:10.1037/0278-7393.20.5.1172

Cited by 90 publications

(127 citation statements)

References 23 publications

(38 reference statements)

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“…Such a disordinal interaction is difficult to explain for any theory that proposes that age effects can be reduced to a single factor. Age effects in the coordinative tasks can hardly be explained by age differences in basic processes that are somehow magnified in the coordinativeconditions (Salthouse, 1996;Salthouse & Coon, 1994), because age differences in basic processes should have led to measurable, if only small, differences in the sequential condition as well. The old participants took more time for encoding of the initial items, but any advantage they might have gained from this would soon be lost because of the replacement of these items through the updating operations.Still, old adults performed simple arithmetic operations as fast as young adults.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age differences in working memory— The roles of storage and selective access

2003

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Twenty-four young (23 years) and 24 old (71 years) adults performed arithmetic tasks with working memory loads ranging from 1 to 4. Age groups were equivalent in mean accuracy and speed of arithmetic operations under minimal working memory load, but old adults were slower than young with memory demands .1. Access to a new object in working memory as the basis of computation required additional time. This object-switching cost increased with increases in memory demand, but was unaffected by age, indicating that old adults have no deficit in selective access to working memory.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age differences in working memory— The roles of storage and selective access

2003

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“…That is, because the relations between age and cognitive variables can vary for a variety of reasons, such as measurement sensitivity, reliability, and dependence on age-sensitive processes (see Salthouse, 2000;Salthouse & Coon, 1994), by itself the strength of the relations between age and different variables provides a weak basis for inferring the existence of distinct age-related influences. In contrast, reliance on procedures to assess the statistical independence of age-related effects on a variety of cognitive variables provides a more powerful, and direct, basis for inferring the operation of more than one age-related influence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Localizing age-related individual differences in a hierarchical structure

2004

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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.

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“…However, the assumption of one or more fairly general age-related factors does not preclude the occurrence of significant interactions because interactions can originate as a result of (a) the existence of specific or local age-related influences in addition to the hypothesized broad or general influences (Salthouse, 1992d), (b) differential reliance of processes or measures on the general or common factor(s) (e.g., Salthouse & Coon, 1994), (c) a multiplicative or proportional influence of the general factor(s) such that the absolute differences between age groups increase with the magnitude of the treatment effect (e.g., Cerella, 1990;Cerella, Poon, & Williams, 1980;Salthouse, I985a), or (d) a statistical artifact attributable to differential discriminating power (e.g., reliability, power, and region in the measurement range) of the variables (e.g., Salthouse, 1985bSalthouse, , 1991c. Particularly when one does not assert that general factors are the exclusive source of age-related differences in cognition, therefore, the existence of what appear to be selective or differential age-related effects in the form of statistical interactions is not at all inconsistent with the existence of common or general factors.…”

Section: Theoretical Assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Instead, the age-related effects can be expected to vary in magnitude because of the operation of other influences, even if a common underlying mechanism is involved (cf. Salthouse, I992b, 1992d;Salthouse & Coon, 1994). Considerable evidence indicates that a variety of factors contribute both to the absolute level of speeded performance and to the relations between age and measures of speeded performance.…”

Section: Statistical Control Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition.

Salthouse¹

1996

Psychological Review

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A theory is proposed to account for some of the age-related differences reported in measures of Type A or fluid cognition. The central hypothesis in the theory is that increased age in adulthood is associated with a decrease in the speed with which many processing operations can be executed and that this reduction in speed leads to impairments in cognitive functioning because of what are termed the limited time mechanism and the simultaneity mechanism. That is, cognitive performance is degraded when processing is slow because relevant operations cannot be successfully executed (limited time) and because the products of early processing may no longer be available when later processing is complete (simultaneity). Several types of evidence, such as the discovery of considerable shared age-related variance across various measures of speed and large attenuation of the age-related influences on cognitive measures after statistical control of measures of speed, are consistent with this theory.The purpose of the current article is to describe, and discuss the evidence relevant to, the processing-speed theory of cognitive aging phenomena. The fundamental assumption in the theory is that a major factor contributing to age-related differences in memory and other aspects of cognitive functioning is a reduction with increased age in the speed with which many cognitive operations can be executed (Salthouse, 1985b). In this article, discussion of evidence relevant to the theory is restricted to the adult portion of the life span, but the basic mechanism may be relevant across the entire life span because similar ideas have been proposed by Kail (e.g., 1986Kail (e.g., , 1991Kail & Park, 1992) regarding the development of cognitive functioning during childhood.Because the success of a theory cannot be evaluated if the goal one hopes to achieve is never clearly specified, I begin by briefly describing the phenomenon that the present theory is intended to explain. Some of the best-documented findings in the literature on aging and cognition are the age-related differences in Type A (Hebb, 1942) or fluid (Cattell, 1943;Horn, 1982;Horn & Cattell, 1963) cognition, which include a wide variety of measures of memory, reasoning, and spatial abilities. The relations between age and cognition have been well documented since the earliest mental testing of adults (e.g., Foster & Taylor, 1920;Jones & Conrad, 1933), and they are readily apparent in the results from the standardization data in psychometric and neuropsychological test batteries (e.g., see Salthouse, 1991c, chap. 2, for a review). Because the samples for the standardization data in these test batteries are typically large and representative, and because the performance measures are Preparation of this article was supported by National Institute on Aging Grant R37 AG06826.1 would like to thank John Dunlosky, Julie Earles, Dan Fisk, Leah Light, Ulman Lindenberger, and David Madden for helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.Correspondence concerning this article sho...

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Interpretation of differential deficits: The case of aging and mental arithmetic.

Cited by 90 publications

References 23 publications

Age differences in working memory— The roles of storage and selective access

Age differences in working memory— The roles of storage and selective access

Localizing age-related individual differences in a hierarchical structure

The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition.

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