title: Education does not protect against age-related decline of switching focal attention in working memory.
abstract: In this experimental study, effects of age and education on switching focal attention in working memory were investigated among 44 young (20-30 years) and 40 middle-aged individuals (50-60 years). To this end, a numeric n-back task comprising two lag conditions (1- and 2-back) was administered within groups. The results revealed a comparable increase of reaction time as a function of lag across age groups, but a disproportionate decrease of accuracy in the middle-aged relative to the young group. The latter effect did not interact with education, which challenges the cognitive reserve hypothesis. Moreover, the high-educated middle-aged participants showed a greater increase of reaction time as a function of lag than their low-educated counterparts. Apparently, they were not able to sustain their relatively high response speed across conditions. These results suggest that education does not protect against age-related decline of switching focal attention in working memory.
authors.affiliation: Maastricht University, Faculty of Psychology, Department of Neurocognition, Maastricht, The Netherlands. p.vangerven@psychology.unimaas.nl
authors.forename: Pascal W M
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Van Gerven
authors.forename: Willemien A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Meijer
authors.forename: Jelle
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jolles
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004522:Educational Status; D005260:Female; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values