Mental Flexibility: Age Effects on Switching.

Wecker, Nancy S.; Kramer, Joel H.; Hallam, Bradley J.; Delis, Dean C.

doi:10.1037/0894-4105.19.3.345

Cited by 125 publications

(101 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Spatial working memory A measure that is evidenced to be sensitive to deficits to the frontal lobes (Owen et al 1995). Mental flexibility A measure of cognitive switching (Wecker et al 2005). Executive function * Memory…”

Section: Wisconsin Card Sorting Testmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis of Commercially Available Computerized Cognitive Training Among Older Adults

Tetlow

Edwards

2017

J Cogn Enhanc

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Researchers have explored a variety of interventions to improve cognition among older adults. One of which is computerized cognitive training programs. The number of commercially available, cognitive training programs has increased greatly, but scientists debate their value. The purposes of this systematic literature review and meta-analysis were to (1) evaluate the efficacy of commercially available, computerized cognitive training programs to improve cognition in older adults and (2) examine far transfer of training to untrained tasks relevant to everyday functioning. Articles were reviewed if the study (a) included a sample of adults aged 55 and older, (b) used a commercially available, computerized cognitive training program, (c) was a randomized controlled trial, (d) measured cognition as an outcome, and (e) included a sample that was free from health conditions affecting cognitive function (e.g., cancer, stroke, psychiatric conditions, or traumatic brain injury). Effect sizes were calculated using random effect models to determine cognitive training effects for various cognitive domains and far transfer tasks. There were significant small to medium training effects for the cognitive domains of attention (d = 0.651, p < .001), processing speed (d = 0.294, p = .002), and visuospatial memory (d = 0.252, p = 0.016). There was also evidence of far transfer to selfreported measures of everyday function (d = 0.277, p < 0.001). Commercially available computerized cognitive training programs may improve certain cognitive abilities among older adults, who also report improvement on tasks relevant to their everyday lives.

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Section: Wisconsin Card Sorting Testmentioning

confidence: 99%

Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis of Commercially Available Computerized Cognitive Training Among Older Adults

Tetlow

Edwards

2017

J Cogn Enhanc

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“…All personnel involved in test administration were trained in administration and scoring procedures, and cross-center (Wechsler, 1997b). A MEM score could not be computed for one subject because of missing data on a donor scale.…”

Section: Neuropsychologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Donor items for MEM came from the Memory Assessment Scale (Williams, 1991) list learning task and include immediate recall Trials 1 and 3, delayed free recall, and delayed cued recall. Donor scales for EXEC included the Initiation-Perseveration subscale of the Mattis Dementia Rating Scale, the FAS verbal fluency test (Delis, Kaplan, & Kramer, 2001), WAIS Digit Span Backward (Wechsler, 1997a), and WMS-R Visual Memory Span Backward (Wechsler, 1997b). A MEM score could not be computed for one subject because of missing data on a donor scale.…”

Section: Neuropsychologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal MRI and cognitive change in healthy elderly.

et al. 2007

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Cross-sectional studies of normal aging indicate an association between memory and hippocampal volume, and between executive functioning and subcortical-frontal circuits. Much less is known, however, about the relationship between longitudinal MRI changes and cognitive decline. The authors hypothesized that longitudinal change in memory would be best predicted by change in hippocampal volumes, whereas change in executive functioning would be best predicted by cortical atrophy and progression of MRI markers of cerebrovascular disease. For this study, 50 healthy elderly subjects underwent structural MRI and cognitive testing at baseline and again at follow-up, with a mean follow-up interval of 45 months. Volumetric MRI measures were hippocampus, cortical gray matter, white matter signal hyperintensity (WMSH), and lacunae. Neuropsychological measures were psychometrically robust composite scores of episodic memory (MEM) and executive functioning (EXEC). Hierarchical multiple regression indicated that a decrease in hippocampus was associated with a decline in MEM, whereas decreased cortical gray matter and increased WMSH were independently associated with a decline in EXEC. Results suggest that in normal aging, cognitive functioning declines as cortical gray matter and hippocampus decrease, and WMSH increases. The association between WMSH and EXEC further highlights the cognitive sequealae associated with cerebrovascular disease in normal elderly.Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Joel H. Kramer , 1997). There are also age-related increases in subcortical ischemic vascular disease that can independently contribute to cognitive decline and dementia (Román, Erkinjuntti, Wallin, Pantoni, & Chui, 2002). Population-based studies have reported "silent" (i.e., asymptomatic) lacunae in 11%-28% of clinically asymptomatic elderly (Longstreth et al., 1998;Price et al., 1997;Vermeer et al., 2003), whereas the prevalence of white matter signal hyperintensities on MRI has ranged from 30% to 100% across studies of healthy elderly samples (Breteler et al., 1994;Longstreth et al., 1998;Ylikoski et al., 2000). Diffusion tensor MRIs have shown a progressive reduction in fractional anisotropy and an increase in diffusivity with age (Charlton et al., 2006).Despite the co-occurrence of age-related cognitive decline and brain changes, associations between brain volume and cognitive ability in healthy subjects have been difficult to establish. Although several studies have reported that hippocampal atrophy is associated with poorer episodic memory performance in older subjects (De Leon et al., 1997;Golomb et al., 1996), an extensive review and meta-analysis by Van Petten (2004) noted considerable variability across studies. The common correlation between hippocampal volume and memory performance across 33 studies was statistically significant but quite low, leading to the conclusion that the evidence for a positive relationship between hippocampal volume and memory performance was weak. Divergent result...

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“…By contrast, level switching describes a prolongation in RT when targets appear at different levels in two consecutive trials (n-1, n), requiring an attentional switch from local to global or global to local target processing ( Figure 4). Repetition priming is assumed to underlie automatic processing (Kim et al, 1999;Lamb et al, 2000), whereas level switching may require voluntary control alternating the attentional focus between the two processing levels (Fink et al, 1997;Wecker et al, 2005;Wilkinson et al, 2001). …”

Section: 25mentioning

confidence: 99%

Local–global interference is modulated by age, sex and anterior corpus callosum size

et al. 2007

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To identify attentional and neural mechanisms affecting global and local feature extraction, we devised a global-local hierarchical letter paradigm to test the hypothesis that aging reduces functional cerebral lateralization through corpus callosum (CC) degradation. Participants (37 men and women, 26-79 years) performed a task requiring global, local, or global+local attention and underwent structural MRI for CC measurement. Although reaction time (RT) slowed with age, all participants had faster RTs to local than global targets. This local precedence effect together with greater interference from incongruent local information and greater response conflict from local targets each correlated with older age and smaller callosal genu (anterior) areas. These findings support the hypothesis that the CC mediates lateralized local-global processes by inhibition of task-irrelevant information under selective attention conditions. Further, with advancing age smaller genu size leads to less robust inhibition, thereby reducing cerebral lateralization and permitting interference to influence processing. Sex was an additional modifier of interference, in that callosum-interference relationships were evident in women but not in men. Regardless of age, smaller splenium (posterior) areas correlated with less response facilitation from repetition priming of global targets in men, but with greater response facilitation from repetition priming of local targets in women. Our data indicate the following dissociation: Anterior callosal structure was associated with inhibitory processes (i.e., interference from incongruency and response conflict), which are vulnerable to the effects of age and sex, whereas posterior callosal structure was associated with facilitation processes from repetition priming dependent on sex and independent of age.

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Mental Flexibility: Age Effects on Switching.

Cited by 125 publications

References 48 publications

Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis of Commercially Available Computerized Cognitive Training Among Older Adults

Systematic Literature Review and Meta-Analysis of Commercially Available Computerized Cognitive Training Among Older Adults

Longitudinal MRI and cognitive change in healthy elderly.

Local–global interference is modulated by age, sex and anterior corpus callosum size

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