Variability in Cognitive Performance in Aging

描述（由申请人提供）：随着年龄的增长，他们的认知表现越来越多变。人与人之间的差异越来越大，因此能力最强者与能力最弱者之间的差异也越来越大。这是因为由于遗传因素以及长期和可变的环境影响（例如，社会经济地位，营养），每个人都经历了他们的一生。然而，他们也变得更加可变，就自己而言，“每个人的可变性随着年龄的增长而增加。然而，流动能力（即，流体智力（fluid intelligence，GF）而不是年龄可能最好地预测变异性。流动能力通常随着年龄的增长而下降，因此两者是相关的。两个问题是拟议的研究的重点：（1）增加的人内变异性是一个稳定的特征，在不同的认知任务？(2)人与人之间的差异性增加是否部分是由于人们在不同的认知功能（如记忆力）中经历了特定的损伤，而其他能力（如信息处理速度）则保留了？

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): As people age, they are increasingly more variable in their cognitive performance. Variability between people increases, so that the difference between the most and least able becomes greater. This is because people experience quite different trajectories of aging, due to genetic factors, as well as lengthy and variable environmental influences (e.g., socioeconomic status, nutrition) each has experienced over their lifetime. However, they also become more variable with respect to themselves" each individual's variability increases with age. However, fluid ability (i.e., fluid intelligence, gf) rather than age may best predict variability. Fluid ability usually declines with age, and so the two are correlated. Two questions are the focus of the proposed research: (1) Is increased within-person variability a stable characteristic across different cognitive tasks? (2) Is increased between-person variability in part due to people experiencing specific impairment in distinct cognitive functions such as memory, with preserved ability in other abilities, such as information processing speed?