title: Cognitive efficiency modes in old age: performance on sequential and coordinative verbal and visuospatial tasks.
abstract: In an experiment using a large set of verbal and spatial tasks requiring low or high degrees of executive control, 3 distinct age-related effects were found. The smallest effect (no slowing) was tied to lexical tasks with low executive involvement, the largest deficit (age-related slowing factor of 2.2) was tied to visuospatial tasks with high executive involvement, an intermediate level of deficit (slowing factor of 1.7) was found for visuospatial tasks with low executive load and verbal tasks with high executive load. These age-related dissociations were incompatible with any "common cause" formulation. The mechanism responsible for the dissociation between verbal and visual tasks, and between low and high executive load remains to be determined. The latter may reflect capacity limits.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Syracuse University, New York 13244-2340, USA. pverhaeg@psych.syr.edu
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Verhaeghen
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cerella
authors.forename: Silvie C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Semenec
authors.forename: Melissa A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Leo
authors.forename: Kara L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Bopp
authors.forename: David W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Steitz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009048:Motor Skills; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014796:Visual Perception