Interrelations of Age, Visual Acuity, and Cognitive Functioning

Salthouse, Timothy A.; Hancock, Holly E.; Meinz, Elizabeth J.; Hambrick, David Z.

doi:10.1093/geronb/51b.6.p317

Cited by 213 publications

(191 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Both our LGM and DCSM results demonstrate that correlations among intellectual and sensory Level components are high, and do not primarily reflect shared mean age trends; when controlling for age at initial testing, these correlations continued to be substantial and statistically reliable. This finding confirms and extends evidence based on cross-sectional analyses of the present and comparable samples (Anstey et al, , 1993Anstey & Smith, 1999;Anstey, 1999b;Clement, 1974;Li et al, 1998;Lindenberger & Baltes, 1994;Rabbitt, 1991;Roberts et al, 1997;Schaie, 1996;Salthouse et al, 1996Salthouse et al, , 1998Stankov, 1986;Stankov & Anstey, 1997;Stankov, Seizova-Cajić, & Roberts, 2001). In old and very old age, intellectual and sensory domains of functioning are closely related (e.g., Clark, 1960;Cohn, Dustman, & Bradford, 1984;Dirken, 1972;Heron & Chown, 1967;Lindenberger & Baltes, 1994;Welford & Birren, 1965).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

“…Its correlational link to intellectual abilities in old age has been replicated in many studies and under various operationalization schemes (e.g., Anstey, 1999b;Anstey, Dain, Andrews, & Drobny, 2002;Salthouse et al, 1996;Schaie, 1996). Generally, correlational studies focus on visual acuity, rather than field vision, color vision, or visual contrast sensitivity (e.g., Anstey et al, 1993Anstey et al, , 1997Owsley & Sloane, 1990, but cf.…”

Section: Present Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 87%

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Exploring structural dynamics within and between sensory and intellectual functioning in old and very old age: Longitudinal evidence from the Berlin Aging Study

Ghisletta

Lindenberger

2005

Intelligence

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Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of age-heterogeneous samples have revealed correlational links between and within intellectual, sensory, and sensorimotor domains. Due to basic limitations of cross-sectional designs and a reluctance to disentangle antecedent-consequent relations in longitudinal designs, the functional significance and dynamics of these links have remained unclear. Advanced structural equation models allow representing multivariate longitudinal changes as a function of time-based and directed relations. We applied this methodology to longitudinal data from the Berlin Aging Study (at inception total N = 516; age range = 70-103 years) to explore the structural dynamics among perceptual speed, verbal knowledge, close visual acuity, and distance visual acuity. We found reliable, occasion-based, age-partialed latent regression paths that influence longitudinal changes within and across intellectual and sensory domains. We conclude that intellectual and sensory domains are dynamically linked in old and very old age, and discuss implications of this finding for theories of cognitive aging. D

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 88%

Section: Present Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 87%

Exploring structural dynamics within and between sensory and intellectual functioning in old and very old age: Longitudinal evidence from the Berlin Aging Study

Ghisletta

Lindenberger

2005

Intelligence

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“…Salthouse et al [52] reached similar conclusions with three independent samples, using tests of near visual acuity, working memory, associative learning, and concept identification. Similarly, Li et al [32] have added to this view by demonstrating a relationship between short-term fluctuations in walking ability and short-term verbal and spatial memory in a healthy sample of residents aged 64 -86 years.…”

Section: Correlations Between Sensory Sensorimotor and Cognitive Abmentioning

confidence: 56%

Relations between aging sensory/sensorimotor and cognitive functions

Li¹,

Lindenberger²

2002

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

397

264

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Recent evidence is reviewed to examine relations among sensory, sensorimotor, and cognitive aging. Age-heterogeneous cross-sectional data sets show substantial covariation among sensory, sensorimotor and intellectual abilities, and an increase in covariation from adulthood to old and very old age. Recent longitudinal analyses suggest that changes in sensory and intellectual functioning are interrelated. Experimental studies investigate the interdependence between cognitive and sensory/sensorimotor aging by examining the effects of simulated sensory loss on cognitive performance, or the effects of cognitive load manipulations on sensory or motor performance. Generally, both types of manipulations hinder older adults' performance more than that of younger adults. Theoretically, the age-associated intensification of the links among sensory, sensorimotor and cognitive functions observed both correlationally and experimentally may point to (a) common causes influencing all three functions; (b) an increase in resource overlap, cross-domain resource competition, and compensatory tradeoffs; and (c) a combination of the two. Future research aiming at discerning the relative import of these possibilities would profit from an integration of experimental and correlational research strategies. q 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. In this paper, we review evidence for the hypothesized increase of covariation or interdependence between sensory/sensorimotor and cognitive abilities with advancing age. It is well documented that sensory and sensorimotor abilities decline in the course of normative aging [54,57]. As well, extensive coverage of the normative age-related differences, changes, and continuities in cognitive and intellectual abilities is widely available [10,21]. Rather than reviewing these bodies of literature, we will focus selectively on empirical and theoretical work that has addressed the linkages between these domains with respect to adult development. The relevant evidence can be divided into two broad segments: (a) correlational evidence using crosssectional and longitudinal analyses, and (b) experimental evidence of an increased interdependence between domains. The final portion of our review will be devoted to discussing possible theoretical accounts of the documented relationships. Correlations between sensory, sensorimotor, and cognitive abilitiesObserved relationships between intellectual and sensory functioning have been discussed at length in the past several decades [12,54]. More recently, lifespan developmentalist Paul Baltes proposed that whereas before and during middle adulthood, interindividual variability in cognitive status is driven largely by cultural and environmental factors, in late life, variability might be increasingly constrained by biologically-based factors [7]. Subsequent to this proposal, several large-scale cross-sectional and longitudinal studies have examined the age-related changes in relationship between intellectual and sensory/sensorimotor abilities [3 -6,...

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“…A major reason for this interest is that numerous studies have reported moderate to strong correlations between measures of Gf and measures hypothesized to assess WM. Some early research of this type was reported by Salthouse and colleagues where significant correlations were found between computation span, reading span or listening span measures of WM and various measures of reasoning or Gf (e.g., Salthouse, 1991;1992a, b, c;1993;Salthouse, Hancock, Meinz & Hambrick, 1996;Salthouse, Mitchell, Skovronek & Babcock, 1989). For example, after controlling for influences of age and of perceptual speed, Salthouse (1991) found standardized regression coefficients between a composite WM measure and a composite measure of accuracy from several different cognitive tasks of .35, .42, and .56 in three separate studies.…”

Section: Results Inmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contextual analysis of fluid intelligence

2008

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The nature of fluid intelligence was investigated by identifying variables that were, and were not, significantly related to this construct. Relevant information was obtained from three sources: reanalyses of data from previous studies, a study in which 791 adults performed storage-plusprocessing working memory tasks, and a study in which 236 adults performed a variety of working memory, updating, and cognitive control tasks. The results suggest that fluid intelligence represents a broad individual difference dimension contributing to diverse types of controlled or effortful processing. The analyses also revealed that very few of the age-related effects on the target variables were statistically independent of effects on established cognitive abilities, which suggests most of the age-related influences on a wide variety of cognitive control variables overlap with age-related influences on cognitive abilities such as fluid intelligence, episodic memory, and perceptual speed.The finding that nearly all cognitive variables are positively related to one another has been described as one of the most replicated results in psychology (cf. 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). To illustrate, in an analysis of 30 different data sets, Salthouse (2001a) found a median rank-order correlation of .80 between a variable's loading on the first principal component and the absolute magnitude of the variable's correlation with age. Another intriguing outcome of these analyses was that the variables with the strongest associations with other variables and the strongest associations with age were frequently measures of reasoning or fluid intelligence (Gf).Relations among cognitive variables are often represented in terms of an organizational structure based on the patterns of correlations. There is considerable agreement that a particularly meaningful correlation-based organization is a hierarchical structure, with observed variables at the lowest level, various cognitive abilities at intermediate levels, and a g factor at the highest level (e.g., Carroll, 1993;Gustafsson, 1988;Jensen, 1998). A consistent finding of analyses investigating where in the hierarchical structure age-related influences operate is the discovery of significant negative relations of age on the highest-order factor in the structure (e.g., Salthouse, 2004;2005a;Salthouse & Ferrer-Caja, 2003). Moreover, these © 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights r...

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Interrelations of Age, Visual Acuity, and Cognitive Functioning

Cited by 213 publications

References 31 publications

Exploring structural dynamics within and between sensory and intellectual functioning in old and very old age: Longitudinal evidence from the Berlin Aging Study

Exploring structural dynamics within and between sensory and intellectual functioning in old and very old age: Longitudinal evidence from the Berlin Aging Study

Relations between aging sensory/sensorimotor and cognitive functions

Contextual analysis of fluid intelligence

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