The Effects of Age and Education on Executive Functioning and Oral Naming Performance in Greek Cypriot Adults: The Neurocognitive Study for the Aging

Abstract

Background/Aims: Age, educational experiences, language and culture can affect linguistic-cognitive performance. This is the first systematic study investigating linguistic-cognitive aging in Greek Cypriot adults focusing on executive functioning (EF) and oral naming performance. Method: Three hundred and fifty-nine participants were included, a group of young-old, aged 60–75 years (n = 231), and a group of old-old participants, aged 76 years and older (n = 128). Participants in each age group were divided into three education groups: 0–4 years (n = 50), 5–9 years (n = 198), and 10 years of education and higher (n = 111). Participants were administered 5 measures of EF along with measures of receptive vocabulary and confrontational naming. Results: There was a significant relationship between the EF composite score and all language measures. MANOVA (α = 0.05) indicated significant age and education effects on most measures of EF and language. Performance on receptive vocabulary and cognitive shift remained stable across age groups, but was mediated by education. Conclusion: Education plays a significant role on all measures requiring semantic organization, speed of information processing, cognitive shift, mental flexibility, receptive vocabulary and confrontational naming. Furthermore, strategic thinking has a role in semantic knowledge, word retrieval and semantic access in healthy aging. We conclude with clinical implications and assessment considerations in aphasia.

Unconstrained, phonemic and semantic verbal fluency: age and education effects, norms and discrepancies

“…Together these results suggest PVFT might be more demanding over time than SVFT. In addition, the fi ndings also corroborate both better performance of cognitive functions like semantic memory storage and executive functions in high education individuals (Al-Ghatani, Obonsawin, Binshaig, & Al-Moutaery, 2011;Constantinidou, Christodoulou, & Prokopiou, 2012).…”

Cognitive-Linguistic Performance and Quality of Life in Healthy Aging

“…A review of studies on cognitive aging by Williams and Kemper [8] summarizes that fluid intelligence (process based) declines earlier than crystallized abilities (based on accumulated knowledge). Such findings are supported by large cohort studies with older adults indicating that healthy aging affects primarily executive abilities and memory functioning [11,12]. Specifically, processes including encoding, storing and retrieval of information become less efficient with aging.…”

“…Research data established that these tests are sensitive to cognitive decline [12,25,26,27,28]. Below are the measures included in the study.…”

“…Greek Version of the Trail Making Tests Parts A and B [12,31] . The Trail Making Test provides information on visual search, scanning, speed of processing, mental flexibility, and executive functions.…”

Fatores biológicos e socioculturais na avaliação do vocabulário receptivo em português oral de deficientes auditivos pós-linguais

“…The schooling has been identified as a determinant of performance in different cognitive and language tests, developed for the assessment of children, adults as well (10)(11)(12) , taking influence described in vocabulary tests (9,(13)(14)(15) . The material used, although there are different classifications by level of schooling, it is considered that the population used for standardization in the manual (children 7-10 years) there is also the influence of maturation cognitive processes, so that the schooling cannot be displayed as the only factor in determining the performance tests.…”