title: The influence of cognitive reserve on strategy selection in normal aging.
abstract: Cognitive reserve (CR) has been proposed as a latent variable that can account for the frequent discrepancy between an individual's underlying level of brain pathology and their observed clinical outcome. A possible behavioral manifestation of CR is best strategy choice. Older adults have been shown to choose sub-optimal strategies for performing various tasks. The present study attempted to investigate whether greater levels of CR could predict greater strategy selection, particularly in older adults. A computational estimation task was administered to 20 healthy young adults (mean age = 24.7 ± 3.6; 20-31 years) and 18 healthy older adults (68.2 ± 4.5; 62-77 years) wherein participants needed to estimate the product of two two-digit numbers by using one of two strategies. The results revealed an effect of age group on strategy choice and supported the hypothesis that CR is associated with increased strategy selection abilities.
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Neuroscience Division of the Department of Neurology, and the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Barulli
authors.forename: Brian C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Rakitin
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lemaire
authors.forename: Yaakov
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Stern
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D058245:Cognitive Reserve / Q000502:physiology*; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D055815:Young Adult