Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 May;22(5):682-8.
doi: 10.1177/0956797611404900. Epub 2011 Apr 5.

Effects of age on time-dependent cognitive change

Timothy A Salthouse  1
Affiliations

Effects of age on time-dependent cognitive change

Timothy A Salthouse. Psychol Sci. 2011 May.

Abstract

Interpretation of cognitive change has been complicated because different influences on change are not easily distinguished. In this study, longitudinal cognitive change was decomposed into a component related to the length of the interval between test occasions (i.e., time-dependent change) and a component unrelated to the test-retest interval (i.e., time-independent change). Influences of age on the two hypothesized components were investigated in a sample of more than 1,500 adults for whom the intervals between test occasions ranged from less than 1 year to more than 8 years. Although overall change was negatively related to age for all seven composite cognitive variables, little or no effect of age was apparent for the time-dependent component of change. The results suggest that the relations between age and cognitive change over intervals of less than 8 years are largely influenced by factors operating at or near the initial test occasion.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author declared that he had no conflicts of interest with respect to his authorship or the publication of this article.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mean change, with standard errors, for the two Connections variables as a function of test-retest (T1-T2) interval. Successive data points are based on partially overlapping samples; each sample has a T1-T2 range of 1.5 years, and the ranges of successive samples begin 0.5 years apart.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Mean changes, and slopes of change as a function of test-retest (T1-T2) interval, as a function of age. Results are shown separately for each composite cognitive variable. Error bars indicate standard errors. Change was calculated by subtracting T1 performance from T2 performance. Successive data points are based on partially overlapping samples, each comprising a range of 20 years and differing from the previous group by 5 years. No data point is provided for overall change in Spatial Visualization at the youngest age because the value (0.24) is outside the range of the y-axis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Baltes PB, Reese HW, Nesselroade JR. Life-span developmental psychology: Introduction to research methods. Monterey, CA: Brooks-Cole; 1977.
    1. Campbell DT, Stanley JC. Experimental and quasiexperimental designs for research. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally & Co.; 1963.
    1. Cohen G, Stanhope N, Conway MA. Age differences in the retention of knowledge by young and elderly students. British Journal of Developmental Psychology. 1992;10:153–164.
    1. Cohen J, Cohen P, West SG, Aiken LS. Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. 3rd. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum; 2003.
    1. Earles JL, Coon VE. Adult age differences in long-term memory for performed activities. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences. 1994;49:P32–P34. - PubMed

Publication types