Variability in Cognitive Performance in Aging

描述(申请人提供)：随着年龄的增长，他们的认知表现越来越多变。人与人之间的可变性增加，因此能力最强和能力最低的人之间的差异变得更大。这是因为，由于遗传因素，以及每个人在一生中经历的漫长和可变的环境影响(例如，社会经济地位、营养)，人们经历了截然不同的老龄化轨迹。然而，他们也变得更具变异性“每个人的变异性随着年龄的增长而增加。然而，流体能力(即流体智力)比年龄更能预测变异性。流体能力通常随着年龄的增长而下降，因此两者是相关的。拟议研究的重点是两个问题：(1)人内可变性增加是不同认知任务的稳定特征？(2)人与人之间的可变性增加，部分原因是人们在不同的认知功能(如记忆)方面经历了特定的损害，而在其他能力(如信息处理速度)方面保持了能力？

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?