Department of Psychology, University of Virginia,Charlottesville, VA 22904-4400, USA.
Psychol Sci. 2011 May;22(5):682-8. doi: 10.1177/0956797611404900. Epub 2011 Apr 5.
Interpretation of cognitive change has been complicated because different influences on change are not easily distinguished. In this study, longitudinal cognitive change was decomposed into a component related to the length of the interval between test occasions (i.e., time-dependent change) and a component unrelated to the test-retest interval (i.e., time-independent change). Influences of age on the two hypothesized components were investigated in a sample of more than 1,500 adults for whom the intervals between test occasions ranged from less than 1 year to more than 8 years. Although overall change was negatively related to age for all seven composite cognitive variables, little or no effect of age was apparent for the time-dependent component of change. The results suggest that the relations between age and cognitive change over intervals of less than 8 years are largely influenced by factors operating at or near the initial test occasion.
由于不同的影响因素很难区分，因此认知变化的解释变得复杂起来。在这项研究中，将纵向认知变化分解为与测试时间间隔长度相关的成分（即时间依赖性变化）和与测试-再测试间隔无关的成分（即时间独立性变化）。在一个超过 1500 名成年人的样本中，研究了年龄对这两个假设成分的影响，这些成年人的测试时间间隔从不到 1 年到超过 8 年不等。尽管所有七个综合认知变量的整体变化与年龄呈负相关，但变化的时间依赖性成分的年龄影响很小或不明显。结果表明，在不到 8 年的时间间隔内，年龄与认知变化之间的关系主要受到初始测试时或附近的因素的影响。
