Short-term cognitive change in adults from 18 to 80

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的研究将调查各种认知变量的短期纵向变化，特别强调60岁以下的成年人。虽然以前的研究已经发现很少或没有认知变化的纵向比较，涉及青年和中年人，本研究将采用两种方法的创新，可变的重测间隔和测量突发在每一个场合，这将使年龄的影响，以区分重测效果，并将增加灵敏度检测的变化，考虑到正常的短期变异性能。 其中的主要问题是要调查的年龄相关的认知变化是否开始在成年早期，是否在不同的认知变量的变化是相互独立的，在成年的不同时期同样如此，以及在何种程度上的因素，如一个人的认知或身体的生活方式缓和不同的认知能力在成年的不同时期的年龄变化量。在2001年、2002年和2003年完成了13项认知测试的700多名18至89岁的成年人将被邀请参加该项目，另外还有两个新的样本，每个样本300名成年人。大多数参与者将在项目的第一年或第二年的大约两周内进行三次测量突发设计，并在项目的第三年，第四年或第五年再次进行评估。将使用混合效应模型获得每名受试者的年龄和复检变化分量的估计值，并将根据其相互之间的相关性以及与各种个体差异特征的相关性对这些估计值进行检查。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed research will investigate short-term longitudinal change in a broad variety of cognitive variables, with particular emphasis on adults under the age of 60. Although previous studies have found little or no cognitive change in longitudinal comparisons involving young and middle-aged adults, this research will employ two methodological innovations, variable retest intervals and measurement bursts at each occasion, that will allow age effects to be distinguished from retest effects, and will increase sensitivity in the detection of change by taking into account normal short-term variability in performance. Among the primary questions to be investigated are whether age-related cognitive change begins early in adulthood, whether the changes in different cognitive variables are independent of one another and equally so at different periods in adulthood, and the degree to which factors such as one's cognitive or physical lifestyle moderate the amount of age change in different cognitive abilities at various periods in adulthood. Over 700 adults between 18 and 89 years of age who completed the same battery of 13 cognitive tests in 2001, 2002, and 2003 will be invited to participate in the project, as will two new samples of 300 adults each. Most of the participants will be assessed with a measurement burst design of three sessions within a period of about two weeks in either the first or second year of the project, and again in the either the third, fourth, or fifth year of the project. Mixed effects models will be used to obtain estimates of the age and retest components of change for each participant, and these estimates will be examined in terms of their correlations with one another, and with various individual difference characteristics.