Olderbak Sally, Hildebrandt Andrea, Wilhelm Oliver
Universität Ulm Ulm, Germany.
Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald Greifswald, Germany.
Front Psychol. 2015 Aug 12;6:1189. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01189. eCollection 2015.
The shared decline in cognitive abilities, sensory functions (e.g., vision and hearing), and physical health with increasing age is well documented with some research attributing this shared age-related decline to a single common cause (e.g., aging brain). We evaluate the extent to which the common cause hypothesis predicts associations between vision and physical health with social cognition abilities specifically face perception and face memory. Based on a sample of 443 adults (17-88 years old), we test a series of structural equation models, including Multiple Indicator Multiple Cause (MIMIC) models, and estimate the extent to which vision and self-reported physical health are related to face perception and face memory through a common factor, before and after controlling for their fluid cognitive component and the linear effects of age. Results suggest significant shared variance amongst these constructs, with a common factor explaining some, but not all, of the shared age-related variance. Also, we found that the relations of face perception, but not face memory, with vision and physical health could be completely explained by fluid cognition. Overall, results suggest that a single common cause explains most, but not all age-related shared variance with domain specific aging mechanisms evident.
随着年龄增长，认知能力、感觉功能（如视觉和听觉）以及身体健康共同下降，这一点已有充分记录，一些研究将这种与年龄相关的共同下降归因于单一的共同原因（如大脑衰老）。我们评估了共同原因假说在多大程度上预测了视觉与身体健康和社会认知能力（特别是面部感知和面部记忆）之间的关联。基于443名成年人（17 - 88岁）的样本，我们测试了一系列结构方程模型，包括多指标多原因（MIMIC）模型，并在控制了他们的流体认知成分和年龄的线性效应之前和之后，估计视觉和自我报告的身体健康通过一个共同因素与面部感知和面部记忆相关的程度。结果表明这些构念之间存在显著的共同方差，一个共同因素解释了部分但并非全部与年龄相关的共同方差。此外，我们发现面部感知与视觉和身体健康的关系，而非面部记忆与视觉和身体健康的关系，可以完全由流体认知来解释。总体而言，结果表明单一的共同原因解释了大部分但并非全部与年龄相关的共同方差，特定领域的衰老机制也很明显。
