RESUMEN
OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to test for interactions between education and health status (i.e., physical, social, and psychological functioning) with respect to baseline cognitive performance and change over 6 years. METHOD: Longitudinal data from the Maastricht Aging Study of 1344 men and women aged 24-47 and 49-77 were used. RESULTS: Education by health interactions were restricted to the younger group. The components of health status that most consistently interacted with education were physical functioning on cognitive performance at baseline and physical and psychological functioning on cognitive change. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that high education attenuates age-related decline and lower baseline performance incurred by low health status in persons younger than 50.
Asunto(s)
Envejecimiento/fisiología , Trastornos del Conocimiento/epidemiología , Cognición/fisiología , Escolaridad , Estado de Salud , Adulto , Anciano , Envejecimiento/psicología , Trastornos del Conocimiento/diagnóstico , Femenino , Estudios de Seguimiento , Humanos , Estudios Longitudinales , Masculino , Memoria , Persona de Mediana Edad , Países Bajos , Pruebas Neuropsicológicas , Análisis de Regresión , Encuestas y CuestionariosRESUMEN
The present study investigated the effects of a narrow range of interstimulus intervals (ISI; 1, 2, or 3 s) on word-learning performance in relation to age and education. Individuals (N = 338) from four age groups (24 to 76 years) with low or high educational attainment were randomly assigned to one of three ISI conditions. Older age, lower education, and shorter ISI each led to lower performance. However, age differences in performance were not affected by ISI. Furthermore, lower educated individuals needed more time to achieve the same performance level as higher educated individuals.
Asunto(s)
Envejecimiento/fisiología , Educación , Memoria a Corto Plazo/fisiología , Recuerdo Mental/fisiología , Aprendizaje Verbal/fisiología , Adulto , Anciano , Anciano de 80 o más Años , Estudios Transversales , Escolaridad , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Trastornos de la Memoria/fisiopatología , Persona de Mediana Edad , Factores de TiempoRESUMEN
Disproportionate costs of switching focal attention within working memory have been put forward as an explanation for age-related performance impairment on the n-back task. The lag (n) in the n-back task is confounded by memory load, however. In the current study, it was attempted to tackle this issue by introducing a two-digit 1-back condition. This condition was intended to bridge the gap between the conventional 1-back and 2-back conditions by increasing memory load, but not n. Twenty young (mean age = 22 years) and 20 older adults (mean age = 65 years) were subjected to this adapted n-back paradigm. The results corroborated earlier results in that, relative to the young participants, the older participants were disproportionately impaired in the 2-back condition relative to both the conventional one-digit and the two-digit 1-back conditions. In line with previous research, this interaction was only found in the accuracy scores, not in the reaction times. It was concluded that disproportionate costs of focus switching rather than memory load explain age-related impairment on the n-back task.
Asunto(s)
Envejecimiento/fisiología , Atención/fisiología , Memoria a Corto Plazo/fisiología , Pruebas Neuropsicológicas , Adulto , Anciano , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Estimulación Luminosa , Tiempo de Reacción/fisiologíaRESUMEN
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The aim of the present study was to examine whether deeper processing of words during encoding in middle-aged adults leads to a smaller increase in word-learning performance and a smaller decrease in retrieval effort than in young adults. It was also assessed whether high education attenuates age-related differences in performance. METHODS: Accuracy of recall and recognition, and reaction times of recognition, after performing incidental and intentional learning tasks were compared between 40 young (25-35) and 40 middle-aged (50-60) adults with low and high educational levels. RESULTS: Age differences in recall increased with depth of processing, whereas age differences in accuracy and reaction times of recognition did not differ across levels. High education does not moderate age-related differences in performance. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest a smaller benefit of deep processing in middle age, when no retrieval cues are available.
Asunto(s)
Escolaridad , Reconocimiento en Psicología , Aprendizaje Verbal , Adulto , Factores de Edad , Cognición , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Recuerdo Mental , Persona de Mediana Edad , Tiempo de ReacciónRESUMEN
In general, no disproportionate detrimental effects of irrelevant background speech on cognition are found in aging individuals, although this is predicted by the inhibitory view of aging. This may be due to the nature of the primary task (most studies involve a verbal learning task) or the cognitive level at which irrelevant speech interferes with this task. In this study, the irrelevant speech effect on a numeric working memory task was investigated among 20 young (M = 21.8 years) and 20 older (M = 68.1 years) native Dutch individuals. Level of interference (LOI) was manipulated by presenting white noise (no interference), Russian words (low interference), Dutch words (phonological interference), and Dutch numbers (semantic interference) in the background. Results showed that reaction time increases as a function of LOI relative to silence, whereas accuracy remains unaffected. However, no interaction between LOI and age group was found, which suggests that the elderly were not disproportionately affected by an increased level of interference. These results are discussed in the light of the inhibitory view of aging.
Asunto(s)
Envejecimiento/psicología , Atención , Memoria a Corto Plazo , Recuerdo Mental , Solución de Problemas , Percepción del Habla , Adulto , Anciano , Anciano de 80 o más Años , Comprensión , Escolaridad , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Fonética , Retención en Psicología , Semántica , Detección de Señal PsicológicaRESUMEN
In this experimental study, effects of age and education on switching focal attention in working memory were investigated among 44 young (20-30 years) and 40 middle-aged individuals (50-60 years). To this end, a numeric n-back task comprising two lag conditions (1- and 2-back) was administered within groups. The results revealed a comparable increase of reaction time as a function of lag across age groups, but a disproportionate decrease of accuracy in the middle-aged relative to the young group. The latter effect did not interact with education, which challenges the cognitive reserve hypothesis. Moreover, the high-educated middle-aged participants showed a greater increase of reaction time as a function of lag than their low-educated counterparts. Apparently, they were not able to sustain their relatively high response speed across conditions. These results suggest that education does not protect against age-related decline of switching focal attention in working memory.
Asunto(s)
Envejecimiento/fisiología , Atención/fisiología , Área de Dependencia-Independencia , Memoria a Corto Plazo/fisiología , Tiempo de Reacción/fisiología , Adulto , Análisis de Varianza , Estudios Transversales , Escolaridad , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Valores de ReferenciaRESUMEN
In this cross-sectional study, the mediating role of inhibition relative to speed in age-related working memory decline on different tasks was investigated. It was hypothesized that the role of inhibition is marginal or absent in a relatively "passive" or simple working memory task, but present in a relatively "active" or complex task in which the processing, rather than the storage capacity of working memory, is addressed. This hypothesis was tested with a structural equation model that was fitted on a subsample (N = 213) of the Maastricht Aging Study (MAAS). The first trial of the Verbal Learning Test (VLT) served as the passive test and the Self-Paced Auditory Serial Addition Task (SPASAT) as the active test. Results showed that the role of inhibition was absent in predicting VLT performance, whereas it was comparable to the role of speed in predicting SPASAT performance. These findings suggest a relative, task-dependent role of inhibition in explaining age-related memory decline.
Asunto(s)
Envejecimiento/fisiología , Inhibición Psicológica , Trastornos de la Memoria/fisiopatología , Memoria a Corto Plazo/fisiología , Adulto , Anciano , Anciano de 80 o más Años , Estudios Transversales , Femenino , Humanos , Masculino , Persona de Mediana Edad , Pruebas Neuropsicológicas , Tiempo de Reacción , Aprendizaje VerbalRESUMEN
Older or lower educated individuals may be less able than younger or higher educated individuals to inhibit irrelevant speech when learning new visual information. In Experiment 1, we investigated the effects of age (four groups), educational attainment (low or high), and verbal noise (spoken words or silence) on word-learning performance in 230 individuals aged 24 to 76 years. Performance was negatively affected by age, lower education, and irrelevant speech, but there were no interactions between age group and noise condition. In Experiment 2, we increased the difficulty of the word-learning task by using both irrelevant speech and a short interstimulus interval (2 or 0.5 s). Age differences became more pronounced as the result of the simultaneous occurrence of irrelevant speech and a short interstimulus interval. This suggests that older individuals may need more time than younger individuals to learn new information in noisy environments.