The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition

“In contrast, processing speed tends to slow with age (Salthouse, 1996) and has been linked to age-related structural brain changes (Van den Heuvel et al., 2006).”

“Of interest, processing speed is less related to acquired knowledge and education level than some other cognitive functions and has been shown to be more the result of age-related neurobiological degeneration [75, 77].”

“solutions if there were no time pressure (Deary 2000; Salthouse, 1996).”

“Accordingly, WM could be impaired independently of PS in SLE, even though PS is an important component of many cognitive domains including WM (Salthouse, 1996).”

“Cognitive abilities on elderly on the other hand tend to decline instead and that leads to an increasing number of individuals who have difficulties living independently since cognitive decline produce loads of problems in ADL[1].”

“Intelligence has been subjected to analytical studies through tasks tapping cognitive functions such as mental speed, attention, short-term memory, updating, or working memory (Ackerman, Beier, & Boyle, 2002, 2005; Babcock, 1994; Buehner, Krumm, & Pick, 2005; Colom, Rebollo, Palacios, Juan-Espinosa, & Kyllonen, 2004;…”

“accompanying aging (Cerella, 1985; Salthouse, 1996).”

“The age-related decline in the RT tasks is in agreement with numerous studies on the effect of aging on processing speed [2, 12].”

“speech, which may result in reduced word-learning performance, especially in older adults, who generally process information more slowly than do younger adults (Salthouse, 1996).”

“These results are in agreement with the literature, which suggests that processing speed may decrease with advancing age (Lu et al., 2013; Salthouse, 1996).”

“Other studies have also provided converging evidence that individual differences in core neurocognitive abilities may influence L2 acquisition and speech perception (e.g., Salthouse, 1996; Segalowitz, 1997; Miyake and Friedman, 1998).”

“Previous studies have shown SRT to be a central aspect of cognition that is associated with the development of reasoning ability in childhood (Fry and Hale, 1996, Kail, 2007) and with its decline in later adulthood (Salthouse, 1996).”

“However, the age difference reported on raw response times was no longer significant when baseline performance was controlled for, thus replicating findings from several studies that concluded that the negative priming effect was not different between young and older adults (Salthouse, 1996; Borella et al., 2009; Gamb…”

“In fact, an age deficit in new learning is predicted by every existing model of cognitive ageing (e.g., Maylor, Vousden, & Brown, 1999; Myerson, Hale, Wagstaff, Poon, & Smith, 1990; Salthouse, 1996) so, while clearly expected, this finding does not uniquely support any theoretical framework.”

“Moreover, because this variable has been found to be one of the most important factors explaining the age-related variance in memory (Anderson & Craik, 2000; Clarys et al., 2002; Salthouse, 1996), its influence on memory accuracy should also be considered.”

“Cerebral SVD in frontoparietal areas affect executive function regulation (Wardlaw et al., 2013), planning, problem-solving, and decision-making (Salthouse, 1996; Erel and Levy, 2016; Igelström and Graziano, 2017; Ardila et al., 2018; Bubb et al., 2018; Froudist-Walsh et al., 2018; Gratton et al.,…”

“The processing speed theory put forth by Salthouse (Salthouse 1996) has gained support as an explanation of age-related cognitive difficulties beyond processes encapuslated by the frontal aging hypothesis.”

“…1 min per trial imposed here (cf. Shallice, 1982), age groups did not differ in the number of time out trials, so that results are not influenced by gross differences in processing speed, which is well known to deteriorate with age and to contribute to executive processes (Salthouse, 1996, 2000).”

“Specifically, older raters performed worse than younger raters on visual acuity and contrast sensitivity as well as on a speeded pattern comparison task, consistent with decreases in processing speed in older adulthood (Salthouse, 1996), and on the Wisconsin card sorting task, consistent with age-related decreases in…”

““Slowed synaptic transmission, increased information loss, longer cycle time per calculation, greater neural noise” are all primary features of GSH, resulting in global behavioral slowing down (Cerella, 1991; Salthouse, 1996).”

“In the 1980s and 1990s, concepts such as age-related declines in fundamental operations such as speed of processing (e.g., Salthouse, 1996), working memory (e.g., Salthouse, 1994), and inhibitory function (e.g., Hasher & Zacks, 1988) derived from the focus in mainstream cognitive psychology on…”

“But what could explain the correspondence between μ and memory, controlling for age? Memory test performance is not directly dependent on speed of response, however, according to one theory, neural processing speed mediates cognition, including memory, through the principles of limited time and simultaneity mechanisms…”

“General slowing and, in particular, slowing of movements are well documented (Buckles, 1993; Salthouse, 1996).”

“(Salthouse, 1996; Woutersen et al., 2017).”

“In general, aging is accompanied by a slowing of many processes (Salthouse, 1996, 2000), and this does not seem to be different in the acoustic domain.”

“…is associated with declining cognitive functions, such as working memory capacity, attention, and processing speed, which could impair the ability to perform some auditory tasks even when audiometric thresholds are normal (Cohen, 1987; Craik & Byrd, 1982; Füllgrabe et al., 2015; Salthouse, 1996).”

“In particular, older individuals often have difficulty performing dual tasks that require both storage and processing (Salthouse, 1996; West, 1996; Craik and Salthouse, 2000).”

“tive speed is a sensitive indicator, vulnerable to the effects of ageing, and arguably fundamental to higher-order abilities((34)).”

“Age-related cognitive decline results from changes in brain structure and function that occur with advancing age (Hasher & Zacks, 1988; Obler & Albert, 1980; Park & Reuter-Lorenz, 2009; Salthouse, 1996, 2001).”

“Brinley, 1965; Cerella, 1985, 1991, 1994; Salthouse, 1985, 1991, 1996 ).”

“The observed age by speed interactions could be due to cognitive slowing (Cerella, 1990; Salthouse, 1996), or to the acoustic distortions introduced when speech is speeded artificially (Gordon-Salant & Fitzgibbons, 1999; Schneider et al.”

“The present review aims to help the reader: (1) better understand the structure and nature of human cognition; (2) understand the problem of combining cognitive test data based on arbitrary rules; and (3) apply current cognitive theory to their own nutrition research in order to improve the reporting of cognitive outc…”

“(2015), wherein older participants were slower to compare symbolic numbers, most likely due to a decline in processing speed (Salthouse, 1996), but in turn were more accurate in comparing numbers.”

“Decreased parietal P3bs (Lorenzo-López et al., 2008; Wild-Wall et al., 2011) during the most difficult task (2-back) provide evidence of age-related cognitive decline (Missonnier et al., 2004; Salthouse, 1996).”

“Information processing becomes slower, which limits the response flexibility of the system (Salthouse, 1996).”

“Cognitive aging theoreticians have often suggested that when a main group difference exists in RT, an interaction with age and the independent variable should be interpreted cautiously (Belleville, Rouleau, & Caza, 1998; Loftus, 1978; Salthouse, 1996).”

“…suggest that age-related changes in cognitive performance are to be attributed to a few general factors such as a decline in the speed of processing, in working memory capacity, or in inhibitory efficiency (Salthouse, 1996; Van der Linden et al., 1999; Hasher et al., 1991; Zachs & Hasher, 1994).”

“The present findings may have implications that extend well beyond age and individual differences in RTs. Salthouse (1996) has argued that speed is a fundamental mediator of age differences in a variety of cognitive abilities .”

“…is that performance on word-learning tasks is strongly dependent on processing resources that decline with age, such as working memory efficiency (Babcock & Salthouse, 1990; Jenkins, Myerson, Hale, & Fry, 1999), processing speed (Salthouse, 1996), and inhibitory mechanisms (Hasher & Zacks, 1988).”

“…eye-movement patterns in reading are sensitive to cognitive factors such as the reader’s working memory capacity (Just & Carpenter, 1992), global processing speed (Salthouse, 1996), spelling ability (Slattery & Yates, 2017; Veldre & Andrews, 2014), and verbal skills (Kuperman & van Dyke, 2011).”

“…and the ability to store and manipulate information to complete perceptual tasks as well as presbycusis-related deficits in auditory acuity (Akeroyd, 2008; Schneider et al., 2010; Salthouse, 1996; Humes and Dubno, 2010; Pichora-Fuller and Souza, 2003; Jin and Nelson, 2010; Kidd and Humes, 2012).”

“However, two things should be noted may contribute to the inconsistent results between studies: The first is slowing processing speed: processing speed is the basic component of information processing, and is conceived as a general resource related to higher-level cognition (Salthouse, 1996).”

“For example, it is known that cognitive and neural processes become slower with age (Bieniek et al., 2013; Price et al., 2017; Salthouse, 1996), which is reflected in changes in the amplitude and latency of auditory evoked responses (Harris et al., 2008; Henry et al., 2017; Tremblay et al., 2003),…”

“However, DSST performance seems to be sensitive in reflecting attention/concentration, visual discrimination, information processing speed, and working memory and is especially suitable for screening MCI in the elderly (Salthouse, 1996).”

“Mechanisms relating the occurrence of errors in completing intelligence test tasks to the trade-off between processing speed and information decay were proposed as account for the relationship between mental speed and intelligence (Jensen, 1982; Salthouse, 1996; Schweizer, 2001).”

“The effect of age has been defi ned according to the time spent to perform the task, because information processing slows down in old age (Rodrigues et al., 2008; Rönnlund, Nybertg, Backman, & Nilsson, 2005; Salthouse, 1996).”

“Prior behavioral and fMRI studies show positive covariance of working memory (WM) capacity with response speed (Cavanagh, 1972; Prabhakaran et al., 2011; Salthouse, 1996) and efficient resolution of interference (Kane et al.”

“Indeed, one theory of cognitive aging is that the primary phenomenon of aging is that older adults slow down compared with younger adults (Cerella, 1985; Salthouse, 1996).”

“Other theories have suggested that episodic memory problems may be the result of global declines in functions such as processing speed (Salthouse, 1996), attentional resources (Craik, 1983, 1986), or inhibitory control (Hasher & Zacks, 1988) that have broader consequences for cognition.”

“These difficulties are associatedwith the age-related cognitive and perceptual declines (e.g., Lesch et al., 2011; Rogers and Fisk, 2001; Salthouse, 1996), such as the inhibition of irrelevant information (e.”

“to influential theories of cognitive aging and to classical debates in this research context (Salthouse, 1996; McDowd and Shaw, 2000).”

“Second, given well-known decreased processing speed with age (Salthouse, 1996), we expected that older adults would benefit from increased durations to switch strategy.”

“It is possible, for instance, that slowing (Salthouse, 1996) or other processes affecting the FOA leads to overall lower activation levels, and thus reduced item and context memory once information leaves the FOA.”

“Age-related decline, even in the absence of disease, occurs in some aspects of cognition , such as perceptual-motor speed (Salthouse 1996, 2000; Salthouse and Madden 2007), attention (Kramer and Madden 2008; Verhaeghen and Cerella 2002), and episodic memory (Burke and Mackay 1997; Zacks et al.…”

“processing speed compared to young adults (Salthouse, 1996).”

“ciency of the simultaneity mechanism (Salthouse, 1996), or inefficient associative-binding mechanisms (Chalfonte & Johnson, 1996; Li, Naveh-Benjamin, & Lindenberger, 2005; Shing et al.”

“ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE published: 17 June 2014 doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2014.00128 Age-related effects on event-related brain potentials in a congruence/incongruence judgment color-word Stroop task”

“…such as memory and information processing speed, reach their peak during early adulthood; show a gradual decline from middle to late adulthood; and, after the age of 60 years, show a rapid decline (Baltes & Lindenberger, 1997; Park et al., 2002; Park et al., 1996; Salthouse, 1996; Schaie, 2008).”