No Evidence for a Common Factor Underlying Visual Abilities in Healthy Older People

The world's population is aging at an increasing rate. Even in the absence of neurodegenerative disorders, healthy aging affects perception and cognition. In the context of cognition, common factors are well established. Much less is known about common factors for vision. Here, we tested 92 hea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Developmental psychology 2019-08, Vol.55 (8), p.1775-1787
Main Authors: Shaqiri, Albulena, Pilz, Karin S., Cretenoud, Aline F., Neumann, Konrad, Clarke, Aaron, Kunchulia, Marina, Herzog, Michael H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abstract Reasoning
Adult
Age Differences
Aged
Aging
Aging (Individuals)
Aging - psychology
Cognition
Cognition - physiology
Cognitive Ability
Cognitive Tests
College Students
Common Factors
Contrast sensitivity
Correlation
Executive Function
Female
Fluency
Foreign Countries
Human
Humans
Male
Neurodegenerative Diseases
Neuropsychological Tests - statistics & numerical data
Older Adults
Older people
Test Construction
Verbal Fluency
Vision
Vision, Ocular - physiology
Visual Acuity
Visual Contrast
Visual Measures
Visual Search
Young Adult
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Summary:The world's population is aging at an increasing rate. Even in the absence of neurodegenerative disorders, healthy aging affects perception and cognition. In the context of cognition, common factors are well established. Much less is known about common factors for vision. Here, we tested 92 healthy older and 104 healthy younger participants in 19 visual tests (including visual search and contrast sensitivity) and three cognitive tests (including verbal fluency and digit span). Unsurprisingly, younger participants performed better than older participants in almost all tests. Surprisingly, however, the performance of older participants was mostly uncorrelated between visual tests, and we found no evidence for a common factor.
ISSN:0012-1649
1939-0599
DOI:10.1037/dev0000740