Department of Psychology, Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, TX, USA.
Dev Psychol. 2011 Mar;47(2):331-43. doi: 10.1037/a0021361.
Normative adult age-related decrements are well documented for many diverse forms of effortful cognitive processing. However, it is currently unclear whether each of these decrements reflects a distinct and independent developmental phenomenon, or, in part, a more global phenomenon. A number of studies have recently been published that show moderate to large magnitudes of positive relations among individual differences in rates of changes in different cognitive variables during adulthood. This suggests that a small number of common dimensions or even a single common dimension may underlie substantial proportions of individual differences in aging-related cognitive declines. This possibility was directly examined using data from 1,281 adults 18-95 years of age who were followed longitudinally over up to 7 years on 12 different measures of effortful processing. Multivariate growth curve models were applied to examine the dimensionality of individual differences in longitudinal changes. Results supported a hierarchical structure of aging-related changes, with an average of 39% of individual differences in change in a given variable attributable to global (domain-general) developmental processes, 33% attributable to domain-specific developmental processes (abstract reasoning, spatial visualization, episodic memory, and processing speed), and 28% attributable to test-specific developmental processes. Although it is often assumed that systematic and pervasive sources of cognitive decline only emerge in later adulthood, domain-general influences on change were apparent for younger (18-49 years), middle aged (50-69 years), and older (70-95 years) adults.
对于许多不同形式的费力认知加工，正常成年人的年龄相关衰退都有很好的记录。然而，目前还不清楚这些衰退中的每一个是否反映了一个独特的、独立的发展现象，或者部分反映了一个更为全局的现象。最近发表了一些研究，这些研究表明，在成年期不同认知变量的变化率个体差异之间存在中等至较大程度的正相关。这表明，少数共同的维度，甚至一个单一的共同维度，可能是与衰老相关的认知衰退的个体差异的很大一部分的基础。这种可能性是直接用 1281 名 18 至 95 岁的成年人的数据来检验的，这些成年人在长达 7 年的时间里，在 12 项不同的费力认知加工测量中被纵向跟踪。多变量增长曲线模型被用来检验纵向变化中个体差异的维度。结果支持了衰老相关变化的层次结构，在给定变量的变化中，有平均 39%的个体差异归因于全局（领域一般）发展过程，33%归因于特定领域的发展过程（抽象推理、空间可视化、情节记忆和加工速度），28%归因于特定测试的发展过程。尽管人们通常认为系统和普遍的认知衰退来源只出现在晚年，但对于年龄较小（18-49 岁）、中年（50-69 岁）和老年（70-95 岁）成年人来说，一般领域的变化影响也是显而易见的。
