Deterioration of frontal lobe function in normal aging: influences of fluid intelligence versus perceptual speed.
A group of young participants were compared with 2 groups of older participants (young-old, 65-74 years and old-old, 75 years or over) on a range of frontal lobe tasks. They were also assessed on the Digit Symbol Substitution Test (DSST), a test of digit cancellation (DC), the AH4 test of fluid intelligence, and the National Adult Reading Test (NART)-a measure of crystalized intelligence. Reliable age differences on all frontal measures except word fluency (FAS) were found. However, age effects were radically attenuated when either DSST speed or Alice Heim 4 (AH4) performance was used as a covariate. In contrast, DC and NART attenuated age-related variance to a much lesser degree. The authors conclude that a large proportion of age-related variance on measures of frontal lobe function may be attributed to a more general factor characterized jointly by DSST and AH4 performance.
Parkin
Alan J
AJ
U Sussex.
Java
Rosalind I
RI
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology / Q000523:psychology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence; D008297:Male; D010465:Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D011581:Psychological Tests / Q000592:standards; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D012016:Reference Values; D012044:Regression Analysis