When Does Cognitive Functioning Peak? The Asynchronous Rise and Fall of Different Cognitive Abilities Across the Life Span

Hartshorne, Joshua K.; Germine, Laura

doi:10.1177/0956797614567339

Cited by 616 publications

(537 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…That is, even if questions were well understood, the 30-50 year old respondents showed greater difficulty with keeping the question in mind while forming a relevant response. This finding is in line with recent systematic investigations of the age of peak performance across different cognitive tasks: Hartshorne and Germine (2015) found in a series of experiments that processing speed peaks around age 20, working memory around age 30, and comprehension/vocabulary around age 50. Eur J Ageing (2016) 13:185-193 189 Thus, what people report is affected by what information they can remember and retrieve from memory and how easy or difficult the question format renders this cognitive task.…”

Section: Retrieving Relevant Information From Memory and Making A Judsupporting

confidence: 92%

How aging affects self-reports

et al. 2016

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A lot of information used in aging research relies on self-reports. Surveys or questionnaires are used to assess quality of life, attitudes toward aging, experiences of aging, subjective well-being, symptomatology, health behaviors, financial information, medication adherence, etc. Growing evidence suggests that older and younger respondents are differentially affected by questionnaire features and the cognitive tasks that question answering pose. This research has shown that age-related changes in cognitive and communicative functioning can lead to agerelated differences in self-reports that are erroneously interpreted as real age differences in attitudes and behaviors. The current review highlights how the processes underlying respondents' self-report change as a function of respondents' age; it updates our previous reviews of this literature.Keywords Aging Á Self-reports Á Surveys Á Questionnaires Á Questionnaire features Á Survey methodology A lot of information used in aging research relies on self-reports. Surveys or questionnaires are used to assess quality of life, attitudes toward aging, experiences of aging, subjective well-being, symptomatology, health behaviors, financial information, medication adherence, etc. Over the past 50 years, a strong body of research has uncovered many potential sources of response biases in surveys and has shown that apparently minor variations in question format, question order, or the position of response options can systematically bias responses and lead to false reports of attitudes and behaviors (for reviews see Schwarz 1999a; Sudman et al. 1996;Tourangeau et al. 2000;Abeele et al. 2013;Krosnick et al. 2006). Growing evidence suggests that older and younger respondents are differentially affected by questionnaire features (Schwarz et al. 1999;Yoon et al. 2010). This research has shown that age-related changes in cognitive and communicative functioning can lead to age-related differences in self-reports that are erroneously interpreted as real age differences in attitudes and behaviors. The current review highlights how the processes underlying respondents' self-report change as a function of respondents' age; it updates our previous reviews of this literature (Schwarz 2005;Schwarz et al. 1999;Schwarz and Knäuper 2000). Notably, this review concludes that age-related differences in question or response option comprehension and memory retrieval can lead to erroneous conclusions about age differences in opinions or behaviors. Yet, the examples identified over the last 20 years have not yet led to substantial changes in survey research that systematically address these problems. Also, the available research is still limited in quantity and quality, as detailed below.

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Section: Retrieving Relevant Information From Memory and Making A Judsupporting

confidence: 92%

How aging affects self-reports

et al. 2016

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“…The links between the established visual processing declines in face recognition and the declines as we age in recognition of some of the emotions portrayed in faces need further study; one of our studies linking these elements is to be reported in due course. Regardless, further research on psychological and neurological bases associated with what we see or do not see as we age continues apace (cf., Barulli & Stern, 2013;Hartshorne & Germine, 2015;Konar, Bennet, & Sekular, 2013;Salthouse, 2012;Utz & Carbon, 2016). Increasing understanding of the processes should help bring about more effective treatment, and exercise and educational programs that help reduce the effects of errors in our face recognition processes and hopefully add to the quality of our lives as we age.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There have been numerous studies on mild and more severe cognitive decline as we age, because of the importance in dealing with non-normal decline such as in Alzheimers' disease and generally aiming to identify what was occurring and to assist in alleviation of normal or mild cognitive decline or impairment (e.g., Agrigoroaei & Lachman, 2011;Albert et al, 2011;Hartshorne & Germine, 2015;Luchetti et al, 2014;Palop & ijps.ccsenet.org International Journal of Psychological Studies Vol. 9, No.…”

Section: Age and Visual Processing And Mild Cognitive Declinementioning

confidence: 99%

Facial Recognition and Visual Processing as We Age: Using the Thatcher Illusion with Famous and Non-Famous Faces

Hicks¹,

Alexander²,

Bahr³

2017

IJPS

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This paper reports a study examining preferred visual processes in recognition of facial features in older vs younger age groups, using Thatcherised images of famous and non-famous people in the one study. The aims were to determine whether decline in visual system processing occurs increasingly as we grow older, and whether there is less decline in recognition of famous (or familiar) faces. Three groups (younger, middle-old and older) made up the sample of 73 people (aged 19-82 years). Visual decline in face recognition across the age groups was assessed based on the Thatcher illusion-using four famous and four non-famous faces either with normal features or with distorted features. The faces were presented one at a time on computer screen, and participants were asked to judge whether the face was distorted (eyes and/or mouth not aligned in relation to the face); in addition, time taken to decision (latency) was also measured. Decline was found in visual processing such that older individuals gave limited attention to facial details (processing faces holistically, with detail errors) and they took longer to decide. Whether the faces were famous or not did not have significant effects on the decisions and there was no interaction with age, though famous faces were given longer attention. Our visual system processes decline as we age in that we give less attention to details and more to holistic processing and so make more errors in recognition. Implications for treatment or amelioration of the effects are discussed.

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“…These alterations may be associated several neuro cognitive changes differing in severity. In fact, there is considerable variability in the age at which cognitive abilities peak and decline throughout life [15].…”

Section: Cellular and Sub-cellular Alterationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Aging Brain: Recent Research and Concepts

Nikhra¹

2017

GGS

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Overview-neuro cognitive aging: Among all body organs, the aging of human brain is most incapacitating with its fallouts on quality of life, general health and psychosocial implications. There are progressive aging changes in the brain with increasing chronological age. However, at the individual level rate and types of changes are variable. The aging of brain entails several structural, bio-chemical and functional changes in the brain as well as various cognitive changes. The changes that may affect cognition and behavior occur at the molecular, intracellular, intercellular and neuronal tissue levels. Further, as suggested by the research in animal models, with aging there are distinct changes in the expression of genes at the neuronal level. In fact, aging is a major risk factor for the common neurodegenerative diseases, which include mild cognitive impairment (MCI), Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD).Morphological alterations: As a person gets older, changes occur in the brain. Certain parts of the brain shrink, especially those related to memory and learning, and other complex cognitive activities. The injury due to reactive oxygen species (ROS) at micro-level and ensuing inflammation and degeneration compromise the neuronal ability to function, affecting the three important processes: communication, metabolism and repair/ regeneration. The other types of brain cells, called glial cells, which play various critical roles apart from supporting neurons also suffer changes due to aging process. Blood circulation in the brain decreases due to multiplicity of factors, including changes in cerebral vasculature, and is a likely cause of cognitive decline. The human brain consumes about 20 percent of the body's oxygen, and the micro-and mini-vascular disturbances (mini-strokes) are common with aging arteries, and cause a cumulative and progressive damage.The cognitive impairment: The cognitive abilities change throughout life, first as a result of brain maturation and later with aging of brain cells and their multitudes of complex interconnections. As people age, their movements and reflexes slow and the hearing and vision weaken. An important issue is how normal brain aging transitions to pathological aging, giving rise to neurodegenerative disorders. The toxic protein aggregates have been identified as potential contributory factors, including amyloid beta-protein in AD, tau in front temporal dementia, and Lewy bodies in PD. But, despite dementia and other neurodegenerative disorders associated with aging, the advanced imaging techniques have revealed that even into late seventies, the brain is able to regenerate and produce new neurons, and restructure complex neuronal circuits. Thus, a chance of regeneration and repair exists even in the aging brain.Measures to retard the cognitive aging: The level of education and lifetime of intellectual effort, which improve cognitive skills, seem to protect brain against aging as well. The brain cells can grow and regenerate and the learning can im...

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When Does Cognitive Functioning Peak? The Asynchronous Rise and Fall of Different Cognitive Abilities Across the Life Span

Cited by 616 publications

References 41 publications

How aging affects self-reports

How aging affects self-reports

Facial Recognition and Visual Processing as We Age: Using the Thatcher Illusion with Famous and Non-Famous Faces

The Aging Brain: Recent Research and Concepts

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