How Shared Are Age-Related Influences on Cognitive and Noncognitive Variables?

Several theories have suggested that age-related declines in cognitive processing are due to a pervasive unitary mechanism, such as a decline in processing speed. Structural equation model tests have shown some support for such common factor explanations. These results, however, may not be as conclu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychology and aging 2001-09, Vol.16 (3), p.532-549
Main Authors: Allen, Philip A, Hall, Rosalie J, Druley, Jennifer A, Smith, Albert F, Sanders, Raymond E, Murphy, Martin D
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Adult. Elderly
Age
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Ageing
Aging
Aging - psychology
Attributes
Biological and medical sciences
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive Ability
Cognitive processing
Developmental psychology
Elderly people
Factor Analysis, Statistical
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Models, Statistical
Neuropsychological Tests - statistics & numerical data
Older people
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Psychometrics
Reference Standards
Reproducibility of Results
Structural Equation Modeling
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Summary:Several theories have suggested that age-related declines in cognitive processing are due to a pervasive unitary mechanism, such as a decline in processing speed. Structural equation model tests have shown some support for such common factor explanations. These results, however, may not be as conclusive as previously claimed. A further analysis of 4 cross-sectional data sets described in Salthouse, Hambrick, and McGuthry (1998) and Salthouse and Czaja (2000) found that although the best fitting model included a common factor in 3 of the data sets, additional direct age paths were significant, indicating the presence of specific age effects. For the remaining data set, a factor-specific model fit at least as well as the best fitting common factor model. Three simulated data sets with known structure were then tested with a sequence of structural equation models. Common factor models could not always be falsified-even when they were false. In contrast, factor-specific models were more easily falsified when the true model included a unitary common factor. These results suggest that it is premature to conclude that all age-related cognitive declines are due to a single mechanism. Common factor models may be particularly difficult to falsify with current analytic procedures.
ISSN:0882-7974
1939-1498
DOI:10.1037/0882-7974.16.3.532