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The present longitudinal multi-cohort study examines whether interindividual variability in cognitive performance and change increases in old age, and whether associations among developments of different cognitive functions increase with adult age. Multivariate multiple-group latent growth modeling was applied to data from narrow cohorts separated by five years of age. Tests assessing episodic recall, semantic knowledge, semantic fluency, and visuospatial ability were administered to 1000 non-demented adults (initially aged 35-80 years), participating in the Betula Project at three occasions over a 10-year period. Greater interindividual differences in change were noted in older age groups. Age-related increases in correlations among performance scores were noted for different cognitive measures beginning in old age, but not earlier. Our study supports a dynamic view of dedifferentiation of cognitive aging.

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Self-reported efforts to compensate for memory impairments in everyday life were examined. In seven scales, the Memory Compensation Questionnaire (MCQ) measures five mechanisms of memory compensation, as well as motivation to compensate and awareness of need to compensate. The MCQ was administered twice, at a 3-year interval, to a large sample of healthy older adults (aged initially 55-85 years) from the Victoria Longitudinal Study. Concurrent analyses (n = 854) revealed an excellent set of psychometric properties for the MCQ and its scales. Two-wave longitudinal analyses (n = 629) revealed overall short-term stability of compensatory strategy use. Although all groups reported a similar pattern of relative frequencies of compensatory mechanism use, select qualifications of age and gender were detected. Applications of the MCQ to investigate awareness, motivation, and implementation of compensatory memory strategies in various populations are discussed.