Between-individual variability and interpretation of associations between neurophysiological and behavioral measures in aging populations: comment on Salthouse (2011).

Salthouse (2011) argued that (a) variance between individuals on cognitive test scores remains constant between 20 and 90 years of age and (b) widely recognized problems of deducing functional relationships from patterns of correlations between measurements become especially severe for neuropsychological indices, especially for gross indices of age-related brain changes (e.g., losses of brain volume or increases in white matter lesions). I argue that between-individual variability on cognitive tests does increase with age and provides useful information on causes of age-related cognitive decline. I suggest that problems of inference from correlations are just as difficult for behavioral as for neurophysiological indices and that inclusion, in analyses, of even gross measures of brain status such as loss of volume and white matter lesions can correct misinterpretations that occur when only behavioral data are examined.

[1]  Denise C. Park,et al.  Handbook of the Psychology of Aging , 1979 .

[2]  E. Borgatta,et al.  Research on Aging , 1979 .

[3]  J. Lachman,et al.  Reallocation of Mental Resources over the Productive Lifespan , 1982 .

[4]  T. Salthouse.  A Theory of Cognitive Aging , 1985 .

[5]  Douglas K. Detterman,et al.  Correlations of Mental Tests with Each Other and with Cognitive Variables Are Highest for Low IQ Groups. , 1989 .

[6]  K. Warner Schaie,et al.  Intellectual development in adulthood , 1990 .

[7]  Timothy A. Salthouse,et al.  Theoretical Perspectives on Cognitive Aging , 1991 .

[8]  D. Dannefer,et al.  Aged heterogeneity: fact or fiction? The fate of diversity in gerontological research. , 1992, The Gerontologist.

[9]  P. Rabbitt,et al.  Does it All Go Together When it Goes? The Nineteenth Bartlett Memorial Lecture , 1993, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[10]  K. Schaie,et al.  Individual differences in cross-sectional and 3-year longitudinal memory performance across the adult life span. , 1993, Psychology and aging.

[11]  Ehtibar N. Dzhafarov,et al.  Decompositions of response times: an almost general theory , 1995 .

[12]  D R Wekstein,et al.  Linguistic ability in early life and cognitive function and Alzheimer's disease in late life. Findings from the Nun Study. , 1996, JAMA.

[13]  T. Salthouse.  The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition. , 1996, Psychological review.

[14]  H. Massie,et al.  Linguistic ability in early life and Alzheimer disease in late life. , 1996, JAMA.

[15]  P. Baltes,et al.  Emergence of a powerful connection between sensory and cognitive functions across the adult life span: a new window to the study of cognitive aging? , 1997, Psychology and aging.

[16]  Jeffrey N. Rouder,et al.  Modeling Response Times for Two-Choice Decisions , 1998 .

[17]  B Schmand,et al.  Cognitive functioning and health as determinants of mortality in an older population. , 1999, American journal of epidemiology.

[18]  P. Rabbitt,et al.  Contribution of cognitive abilities to performance and improvement on a substitution coding task. , 1999, Psychology and aging.

[19]  H. Christensen,et al.  An analysis of diversity in the cognitive performance of elderly community dwellers: individual differences in change scores as a function of age. , 1999, Psychology and aging.

[20]  K J Anstey,et al.  Interrelationships among biological markers of aging, health, activity, acculturation, and cognitive performance in late adulthood. , 1999, Psychology and aging.

[21]  K. Schaie,et al.  Cognitive and sociodemographic risk factors for mortality in the Seattle Longitudinal Study. , 1999, The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences.

[22]  K. Schaie,et al.  Survival effects in cognitive function, cognitive style, and sociodemographic variables in the Seattle Longitudinal Study. , 1999, Experimental aging research.

[23]  Age , 2000, BMJ : British Medical Journal.

[24]  C Leth-Steensen,et al.  Mean response times, variability, and skew in the responding of ADHD children: a response time distributional approach. , 2000, Acta psychologica.

[25]  P. Rabbitt,et al.  There are stable individual differences in performance variability, both from moment to moment and from day to day , 2001, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology.

[26]  S. Sikström,et al.  Aging cognition: from neuromodulation to representation , 2001, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[27]  P. Rabbitt,et al.  Frontal tests and models for cognitive ageing , 2001 .

[28]  Ian J. Deary,et al.  Reaction times and intelligence differences: A population-based cohort study , 2001 .

[29]  S. MacDonald,et al.  Variability in reaction time performance of younger and older adults. , 2002, The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences.

[30]  J. Schneider,et al.  Individual differences in rates of change in cognitive abilities of older persons. , 2002, Psychology and aging.

[31]  K. Anstey,et al.  Cross-sectional and longitudinal patterns of dedifferentiation in late-life cognitive and sensory function: the effects of age, ability, attrition, and occasion of measurement. , 2003, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[32]  L. Fratiglioni,et al.  Terminal decline and cognitive performance in very old age: does cause of death matter? , 2003, Psychology and aging.

[33]  Lars-Göran Nilsson,et al.  New frontiers in cognitive aging , 2004 .

[34]  Stuart W. S. MacDonald,et al.  Intraindividual variability in performance as a theoretical window onto cognitive aging , 2004 .

[35]  P. Rabbitt,et al.  Neglect of dropout underestimates effects of death in longitudinal studies. , 2005, The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences.

[36]  Cheryl L. Dahle,et al.  Regional brain changes in aging healthy adults: general trends, individual differences and modifiers. , 2005, Cerebral cortex.

[37]  F. Craik,et al.  Lifespan cognition: Mechanisms of change. , 2006 .

[38]  Balance marks cognitive changes in old age because it reflects global brain atrophy and cerebro-arterial blood-flow , 2006, Neuropsychologia.

[39]  D. Lawlor,et al.  Intrauterine Growth and Intelligence Within Sibling Pairs: Findings From the Aberdeen Children of the 1950s Cohort , 2006, Pediatrics.

[40]  P. Rabbitt,et al.  Effects of global atrophy, white matter lesions, and cerebral blood flow on age-related changes in speed, memory, intelligence, vocabulary, and frontal function. , 2007, Neuropsychology.

[41]  P. Rabbitt,et al.  Death, dropout, and longitudinal measurements of cognitive change in old age. , 2008, The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences.

[42]  P. Rabbitt,et al.  Sudden declines in intelligence in old age predict death and dropout from longitudinal studies. , 2008, The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences.

[43]  T. Salthouse.  Does the meaning of neurocognitive change change with age? , 2010, Neuropsychology.

[44]  J. Duncan.  How Intelligence Happens , 2010 .

[45]  T. Salthouse.  Influence of age on practice effects in longitudinal neurocognitive change. , 2010, Neuropsychology.

[46]  T. Salthouse.  The paradox of cognitive change , 2010, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[47]  T. Salthouse.  Neuroanatomical substrates of age-related cognitive decline. , 2011, Psychological bulletin.

[48]  P. Rabbitt,et al.  Terminal pathologies affect rates of decline to different extents and age accelerates the effects of terminal pathology on cognitive decline. , 2011, The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences.

[49]  P. Rabbitt,et al.  The Lacunae of Loss? Aging and the Differentiation of Cognitive Abilities , 2012 .