Use it or Lose it? What Predicts Age-Related Declines in Cognitive Performance in Elderly Adults?

Psychologists have suggested two possible causes of declines in cognitive performance with age: declines in cognitive capacity (e.g., working memory), and the level of stimulation in their environments. Fourteen college students (mean age=21 years, SD=1.65), seven middle-aged (40-59, mean age=51, SD=4.8), and five elderly (60+, mean age=74.8, SD=8.3) participants completed a series of assessments including simple and complex measures of processing and reasoning and assessments of cognitive stimulation. The results indicated that working memory declines with age and that these declines predicted performance on complex reasoning tasks while cognitive stimulation was unrelated to performance. Introduction Psychologists have long documented a general decline in cognitive performance during the adult aging process (Salthouse, 1996). Recent research has suggested two possible causes for this decline: (1) decline is an inevitable factor in aging or (2) decline is a result of cognitive inactivity (Meiser & Klauer, 1999; Salthouse, Berish, & Miles, 2002). The first hypothesis suggests that with aging comes a decline in cognitive functioning due to a reduction in processing resources available to the reasoner. The second hypothesis suggests cognitive activity will stave off the effects of aging and subsequently maintain cognitive functioning.