Adult age trends in the relations among cognitive abilities

Abstract

Adult age (24 years to 91 years) was examined as a potential moderator of the relations among cognitive abilities in an aggregate dataset based on studies conducted at the Cognitive Aging Lab at the University of Virginia (N = 2,227). A novel approach was applied by which the manifestations of latent ability factors were free to differ across age groups, and age trends in the interrelations among the factors were tested. Contrary to the dedifferentiation hypothesis, there was no evidence for systematic increases in the magnitudes of relations among cognitive abilities. Conventional analytic procedures replicated these findings.

Figure 1

Parameters are plotted according to age group, as indicated by the final model, χ² (809) = 1695.1, comparative fit index = 0.95, Tucker-Lewis fit index = 0.95. RMSEA = 0.059. Age is represented in years. Panel A shows age trends in factor means. Panels B–F show age trends in factor loadings for indicators of Gf (fluid reasoning; Panel B), Gc (verbal knowledge; Panel C), Gs (processing speed; Panel D), Gm (episodic memory; Panel E), and Gv (spatial reasoning; Panel F). Panel G shows age trends in factor variances. Panel H shows age trends in factor intercorrelations. WAIS = Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale; Raven = Raven's Progressive Matrices; Shipley = Shipley Institute of Living Scale, Abstraction subtest.