Organization of cognitive abilities and neuropsychological variables across the lifespan

Contextual analysis of fluid intelligence

“…However, the results of this project reveal that Gf is related to many different types of variables, including measures of monitoring the status of changing sequences of information, measures of memory for non-verbal information, and measures from a variety of simple tasks when some type of additional processing is required. Because these measures are quite diverse, it may not be reasonable to assume that one particular subset of them necessarily represents the core or essence of Gf without explaining the relations of Gf to the other measures.The idea that Gf encompasses a broad spectrum of controlled processing is consistent with earlier research which found strong relations between the Gf construct and the variance common to different variables hypothesized to reflect the neuropsychological construct of executive functioning (e.g., Salthouse, 2005b;Salthouse & Davis, 2006;Salthouse, et al, 2005). Although motivated from different research traditions and usually studied separately, the results of this and other recent studies suggest that research with cognitive, psychometric, and neuropsychological variables may have been characterizing essentially the same dimension of individual differences among normal healthy adults.…”

“…The same cognitive ability reference constructs listed in Table 1 and portrayed in Figure 1 have been used to investigate the convergent and discriminant validity of latent constructs postulated to reflect executive functioning (Salthouse, Atkinson & Berish, 2003;Salthouse, Berish & Siedlecki, 2004;Salthouse & Davis, 2006), inhibition, updating, and time-sharing , source memory (Siedlecki, Salthouse & Berish, 2005) and prospective memory . However, there were two reasons for focusing on observed variables rather than latent constructs as the target variables in the current project.…”

“…Deary, 2000), and one of the most replicated results in research on aging and cognition is that a very large number of cognitive variables are negatively related to adult age (e.g., Salthouse, 2001a;2004;Salthouse, Atkinson & Berish, 2003;Salthouse & Davis, 2006;Salthouse & Ferrer-Caja, 2003). Interestingly, these two sets of results are linked because the degree to which a given cognitive variable is related to other cognitive variables (as reflected by the variable's loading on the first principal component in a principal components analysis) has been found to predict the magnitude of the age correlation on the variable (e.g., Salthouse, 2001a,b, c).…”

“…If neither variable is found to have a Gf influence, then it is reasonable to infer that none of the aspects of processing involved in either of the tasks reflect Gf. However, the model in Figure 1 controls for effects on the complex variable that are mediated through the simple variable, and thus a discovery of significant effects of Gf on the complex variable would signify that there is a unique, or incremental, influence of Gf on the complex variable, above and beyond that on the simple variable.The same cognitive ability reference constructs listed in Table 1 and portrayed in Figure 1 have been used to investigate the convergent and discriminant validity of latent constructs postulated to reflect executive functioning (Salthouse, Atkinson & Berish, 2003;Salthouse, Berish & Siedlecki, 2004;Salthouse & Davis, 2006), inhibition, updating, and time-sharing , source memory (Siedlecki, Salthouse & Berish, 2005) and prospective memory . However, there were two reasons for focusing on observed variables rather than latent constructs as the target variables in the current project.…”

Psychosocial Adaptations to Dual Sensory Loss in Middle and Late Adulthood

“…12 With regard to cognitive function, studies have shown a reduction in cognitive capacity among older adults in selected domains such as memory and processing speed. [69][70][71] Hearing loss may have a negative impact on cognitive ability, especially the ability to interpret auditory signals, 72 whereas vision loss limits the acquisition and processing of visual material. One study found that community-dwelling Italian older adults with self-reported hearing loss had significantly lower Mini-Mental State Examination scores compared with their peers.…”