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Selective review of cognitive aging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2010

TIMOTHY A. SALTHOUSE
TIMOTHY A. SALTHOUSE*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia
*
*Correspondence and reprint requests to: Timothy A. Salthouse, Department of Psychology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4400. E-mail: salthouse@virginia.edu
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Abstract

Research concerned with relations between adult age and cognitive functioning is briefly reviewed. The coverage is necessarily selective, and is organized in terms of five major questions. These are what abilities are related to age, how many distinct influences are contributing to the relations between age and cognitive functioning, do the differences between people increase with advancing age, what is responsible for the discrepancies between cross-sectional and longitudinal age comparisons of cognitive functioning, and what methods can be used to identify causes of age-related influences on cognition. Although definitive answers are not yet possible, quite a bit of information relevant to the questions is now available. Moreover, the existing information has implications for the design, analysis, and interpretation of cognitive and neuropsychological research concerned with aging. (JINS, 2010, 16, 754–760.)

Keywords

Cognitive agingCross-sectionalLongitudinalVariabilityModeratorsMediators
Type
Short Review
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 16 , Issue 5 , September 2010 , pp. 754 - 760
Copyright
Copyright © The International Neuropsychological Society 2010

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