Cognitive Inconsistency and Practice-Related Learning in Older Adults
Abstract
The current study examined predictors of individual differences in the magnitude of practice-related improvements achieved by 87 older adults (mean age 63.52 years) over 18 weeks of cognitive practice. Cognitive inconsistency, as measured in both baseline trial-to-trial reaction times and week-to-week accuracy scores, was included as a predictor of practice-related gains in two measures of processing speed. Conditional growth models revealed that both reaction time and accuracy level, as well as rate-of-change in functioning, were related to inconsistency, even after controlling for mean-level, but that increased inconsistency was negatively associated with accuracy versus positively associated with reaction time improvement. Cognitive inconsistency may signal dysregulation in the ability to control cognitive performance or may be indicative of adaptive attempts at functioning.
References
2008). Effects of improved physical fitness on cognitive/psychosocial functioning in community-dwelling, sedentary middle-aged and older adults (unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.
(2005). Intraindividual variability may not always indicate vulnerability in elders’ cognitive performance. Psychology and Aging, 20, 390–401.
(2002). Effects of cognitive training interventions with older adults: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of the American Medical Association, 288, 2271–2281.
(1986). Reserve capacity of the elderly in aging-sensitive tests of fluid intelligence: Replication and extension. Psychology and Aging, 1, 172–177.
(1988). On the locus of training gains in research on the plasticity of fluid intelligence in old age. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 392–400.
(1989). Cognitive training research on fluid intelligence in old age: What can older adults achieve by themselves? Psychology and Aging, 4, 217–221.
(1988). The Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status. Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology, and Behavioral Neurology, 1, 111–117.
(1992). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
(2008). Evaluation of a peer-assisted social cognitive physical activity intervention for older adults (unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.
(2011). Peer volunteers improve long-term maintenance of physical activity with older adults: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Physical Activity and Health, 8(Suppl 2), S257–S266.
(2004). Inconsistency in serial choice decision and motor reaction times dissociate in younger and older adults. Brain and Cognition, 56, 320–327.
(2002). Intraindividual variability in physical and emotional functioning: Comparison of adults with traumatic brain injuries and healthy adults. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 16, 264–279.
(2012). The contributions of cognitive trainings to the stability of cognitive, everyday, and brain functioning across adulthood. GeroPsych, 25, 223–234.
(1986). Assessment of leisure time exercise behavior by self-report: A concurrent validity study. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 77, 359–361.
(2008). Enrichment effects on adult cognitive development: Can the functional capacity of older adults be preserved and enhanced? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9, 1–65.
(1981). Fluid intelligence performance in the elderly: Intraindividual variability and conditions of assessment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 73, 573–586.
(2002). Variability in reaction time performance of younger and older adults. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 57, P101–PP115.
(2000). Intraindividual variability in cognitive performance in older adults: Comparison of adults with mild dementia, adults with arthritis, and healthy adults. Neuropsychology, 14, 588–598.
(2008). Intraindividual variability, cognition, and aging. In F. I. M. Craik T. A. SalthouseEds., The handbook of aging and cognition (3rd ed., pp. 491–556). New York, NY: Psychology Press.
(2008). Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105, 6829–6833.
(2008a). DirectRT (Version 2008). New York: Empirisoft.
(2008b). MediaLab (Version 2008). New York: Empirisoft.
(2001). Short-term fluctuations in elderly people’s sensorimotor functioning predict text and spatial memory performance: The MacArthur Successful Aging Studies. Gerontology, 47, 100–116.
(2004). Aging and attenuated processing robustness. Gerontology, 50, 28–34.
(2006). On the merits of orthogonalizing powered and product terms: Implications for modeling interactions among latent variables. Structural Equation Modeling, 13, 497–519.
(2009). Aging, training, and the brain: A review and future directions. Neuropsychology Review, 19, 504–522.
(2008). Predicting impending death: Inconsistency in speed is a selective and early marker. Psychology and Aging, 23, 595–607.
(2008). A latent change score analysis of a randomized clinical trial in reasoning training. Psychology and Aging, 23, 702–719.
(2004). Cardiovascular fitness and neurocognitive function in older adults: A brief review. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 18, 214–220.
(2004). Understanding the transition from normal cognitive aging to mild cognitive impairment: Comparing the intraindividual variability in cognitive function (unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida.
(1991). The warp and woof of the developmental fabric. In R. Downs L. Liben D. PalermoEds., Visions of development, the environment, and esthetics: The legacy of Joachim F. Wohlwill (pp. 213–240). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
(2004). Methodological and theoretical implications of intraindividual variability in perceptual-motor performance. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 59, P49–PP55.
(2009). Cognitive plasticity in adulthood and old age: Gauging the generality of cognitive intervention effects. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 27, 435–453.
(2008). Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee Report, 2008. Washington, DC: U. S. Department of Health and Human Services.
. (2006). Short-term variability in cognitive performance and the calibration of longitudinal change. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 61, P144–PP151.
(2004). Estimating retest effects in longitudinal assessments of cognitive functioning in adults between 18 and 60 years of age. Developmental Psychology, 40, 813–822.
(1994). Cognitive variability: A key to understanding cognitive development. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 3, 1–5.
(2007). Cognitive variability. Developmental Science, 10, 104–109.
(1997). Older and younger adults’ strategy choices in multiplication: Testing prediction of ASCM using the choice/no-choice method. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 126, 71–92.
(2003). Applied longitudinal data analysis: Modeling change and event occurrence. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(1982). Symbol Digit Modalities Test – Revised: Manual. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services.
(2010). Modeling retest and aging effects in a measurement burst design. In P. Molenaar K. M. NewelEds., Individual pathways of change: Statistical models for analyzing learning and development (pp. 37–50). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
(2002). Focus on variability: New tools to understand intraindividual variability in developmental data. Infant Behavior and Development, 25, 340–374.
(2009). Cognitive training and plasticity: Theoretical perspective and methodological consequences. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 27, 375–389.
(2006). Long-term effects of cognitive training on everyday functional outcomes in older adults. Journal of the American Medical Association, 296, 2805–2814.
(2009). Long-term maintenance of retest learning in young old and oldest old adults. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 64B, 608–611.
(2006). Basic forms of cognitive plasticity extended into the oldest-old: Retest learning, age, and cognitive functioning. Psychology and Aging, 21, 372–378.
(2009). A new look at retest learning in older adults: Learning in the absence of item-specific effects. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 64B, 470–473.
(