Cited by 5,902Aging and Gerontology ResearchCognitive Abilities and TestingCognitive Functions and Memory

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The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition

Salthouse, Timothy A.·1996·Psychological Review

DOI 10.1037/0033-295x.103.3.403

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Abstract

Advancing adult age is associated with reduced processing speed, which constrains cognitive performance.

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“Age-related decline in fluid cognition, the ability to process and integrate novel information in a speed-dependent manner, has long been a theme of behavioral studies of attention and working memory (Lustig et al., 2007; Rey-Mermet & Gade, 2018; Salthouse, 1996; Salthouse &Madden, 2007).”
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“…also known as fluid intelligence (Cattell, 1971), has been shown to decline with age due to age-related slowing of processing speed (Bors and Forrin, 1995; Salthouse, 1996; Zimprich and Martin, 2002), whereas crystallized knowledge is not affected (Salthouse and Babcock, 1991; Park et al., 2002).”
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Lever, A. G., Ridderinkhof, K. R., Marsman, M., & Geurts, H. M. (2016) · Developmental Psychology · doi:10.1037/dev0000219 · Cited by 15
“Typical aging is associated with diminished processing speed (e.g., Salthouse, 1996) and older adults take more time in making decisions and avoiding errors, whereas younger adults decide more quickly and find making errors more acceptable (Rabbitt, 1979; Salthouse, 1979; Smith & Brewer, 1995).”
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“Processing speed also decreases with age (Cerella & Hale, 1994; Ebaid, Crewther, MacCalman, Brown, & Crewther, 2017; Salthouse, 1996), and as such, time-based measures may also have more room for improvement than accuracy-based measures.”
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“Similar findings were obtained in an earlier study by Salthouse (2006), who noted a consistent decline in reasoning after age 50.”
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“In sum, findings have pointed out that manipulation of information in the working memory and velocity in which the cognitive operations are performed are slower in older than in younger individuals (Salthouse, 1996).”
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“Furthermore, aging involves a generalized slowing of cognitive processes [130, 131] and often polypharmacy is a condition in which understanding medication instructions and warnings is pivotal.”
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“In this study, we analyzed the three cognitive dimensions which are most investigated in the context of schizophrenia spectrum disorders and have the greatest influence on patients’ everyday functioning [38] (see above for meta-analysis [3–8]): working memory, which consists of the phonological loop (responsible for t…”
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“On the one hand, this decline might be due to a general age-related decrease in processing speed (Salthouse, 1996; Verhaeghen & Salthouse, 1997).”
Background
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“This task was a modification of the letter comparison test used by Salthouse (1996 ) as a measure of perceptual speed.”
Method
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“As expected, latent speed was both directly and indirectly associated with latent list recall (e.g., Salthouse, 1996; Verhaeghen & Salthouse, 1997).”
BackgroundResult
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Background
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“P A A uthor M anuscript 1996), executive function (Buckner, 2004), processing speed (Salthouse, 1996), and spatial and non-spatial declarative learning and memory (Cheng, Faulkner, Disterhoft, & Desmond, 2010; Foster, 2012; Moffat, Zonderman, & Resnick, 2001).”
Background
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“Regarding participants’ end-of-sentence judgment times, we found that older people generally responded more slowly than younger people, an effect that can be attributed to general age-related slowing (Salthouse, 1996, 2000).”
Background
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“The response time to a visual stimulus is slower in older adults (Morgan et al. 1994; Salthouse 1996) with detrimental functional consequences.”
BackgroundResult
Age-related changes in processing speed modulate context use during idiomatic ambiguity resolution
Grindrod, C. M., & Raizen, A. (2018) · Aging Neuropsychology and Cognition · doi:10.1080/13825585.2018.1537437 · Cited by 12
“Another view suggests that age-related declines in cognitive processing are caused by general slowing of perceptual, motor and cognitive processes (Salthouse, 1996, 2000).”
Background
From Description to Explanation in Cognitive Aging
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Self-citation
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“Findings on the significant phenotypic interrelationship among processing speed, working memory and IQ (Miller & Vernon, 1996; Salthouse, 1996) suggest that a single genetic factor will be the most predominant.”
Background
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“A straightforward one is that older adults are simply penalized for slower processing speed (Salthouse, 1996).”
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“The theory states that ﬂuid cognitive performance degrades in old age due to a decrease in processing speed that 1) limits the ability to execute successful operations and 2) reduces the amount of simultaneously available information needed for higher level processing [27].”
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“Speed of processing refers to how quickly the brain can take in, interpret, and respond to information 42,44 .”
Influential
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“The real challenge is the understanding of the complexity of road crossing as well as the complexity of everyday tasks, such as talking at the phone (Neider et al., 2011), and linking it to age-related declines in the respective abilities, such as working memory (e.g., Salthouse, 1996).”
BackgroundResult
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Deng, S., Nolte, J., & Löckenhoff, C. E. (2022) · Experimental Aging Research · doi:10.1080/0361073x.2022.2051967 · Cited by 13
“In particular, aging relates to cognitive declines in memory, processing speed, and attention (Kirasic, Allen, Dobson, & Binder, 1996; Salthouse, 1996; Salthouse & Ferrer-Caja, 2003).”
Background
Task-based functional connectivity of the Useful Field of View (UFOV) fMRI task
Kraft, J. N., Hausman, H. K., Hardcastle, C., Albizu, A., O’Shea, A. M., Evangelista, N. D., Boutzoukas, E. M., Etten, E. J. V., Bharadwaj, P. K., Song, H., et al. (2022) · GeroScience · doi:10.1007/s11357-022-00632-1 · Cited by 10
“Processing speed is typically defined as the speed in which an individual can perceive a given stimulus (usually amongst distractors), interpret the information, and produce a response [2, 3].”
Background
A structural equation mediation model captures the predictions amongst the parameters of the ease of language understanding model
Homman, L. E., Danielsson, H., & Rönnberg, J. (2023) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1015227 · Cited by 11
“The model providing the least explanatory power was a model of General Speed (Salthouse, 1996; AM1) where processing speed and speed of phonological measures were combined, indicating that speed alone cannot account for performance dB SNR for a given SRT. Additionally accounting for WM in this model (AM2) did not impr…”
BackgroundMethodInfluential
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“In an influential account for cognitive ageing, Salthouse (1996) proposed the General Slowing Hypothesis (GSH) that assumed a general slowing of all cognitive processes along the trajectory of normal ageing, and the reduced speed in linguistic processing brought by ageing may as well frustrate the…”
Background
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“In order to control for the influences of more general processing difficulties in ageing [54, 55], tasks for inhibitory control, working memory, and cognitive processing speed were assessed.”
BackgroundMethod
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Han, S. X. (2023) · International Journal of Managerial Finance · doi:10.1108/ijmf-12-2021-0607 · Cited by 14
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“…in the speed of processing is one of the most well-documented and accepted phenomena of ageing and are manifested in age-related decreases in working memory (Salthouse, 1996)—the memory that holds information in mind in the short-term while it is being processed (Anderson, 1983; Gutchess, 2011).”
The effect of unisensory and multisensory information on lexical decision and free recall in young and older adults
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“As a consequence of facilitating speed, we predict that (3) memory recall will be improved for multisensory compared with unisensory stimuli 9 , with (4) the multisensory benefit greater for older adults than young adults when completing the word recall task 10 .”
BackgroundInfluential
Cognitive-Motor Training Improves Reading-Related Executive Functions: A Randomized Clinical Trial Study in Dyslexia
Ramezani, M. H., & Fawcett, A. J. (2024) · Brain Sciences · doi:10.3390/brainsci14020127 · Cited by 20
“Processing speed refers to the number of accurate responses a person can generate in a task within a given timeframe, utilizing various cognitive functions such as motor and visual scanning speed [42].”
Background
Directed functional connectivity of the default-mode-network of young and older healthy subjects
Goelman, G., Dan, R., Bezdíček, O., Jech, R., & Ekstein, D. (2024) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-024-54802-6 · Cited by 13
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“84 It can be regarded as a resource, and researchers attributed worse performance in other cognitive domains to slower IPS.”
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“A review by Salthouse (1996) discusses how two factors related to processing speed can undermine overall cognitive performance.”
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“…on normal age-related changes in neurocognition suggests decreasing information processing speed is significantly related to the declines in learning, memory, and visuospatial abilities with increasing age (Salthouse, 1996, 2000; Christensen, 2001; Finkel et al., 2007; Kochunov et al., 2010).”
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“Of the five tested cognitive measures, processing speed showed the strongest associations with the two age measures, which is in line with what the processing speed account states (Salthouse, 1996; Verhaeghen & Salthouse, 1997).”
Result
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“This finding was in accordance with what was reported by Salthouse [17] that speech in noise difficulties in part arise from age-related declines in cognitive processing.”
BackgroundResult
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“This task aims at defining the optimal tuning to video speed and rhythms, and at finding possible relations with individual sensorimotor rhythms, which in the elderly may be rather slowed (Salthouse, 1996).”
Background
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“…are also consistent with Salthouse’s theory in that basic perceptual speed is so elementary, performance is nearly error-free across the life span (Salthouse, 1996a), and that performance on measures of higher order functioning is negatively impacted by reduced processing efficiency in older…”
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“Thus, it is reasonable that reserve is associated with complex cognitive functions that require high-level strategic competence, such as executive functioning, learning and reasoning, rather than mechanical processing speed, which is particularly prone to deteriorating effects of ageing (Ebaid et al., 2017; Salthouse,…”
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“Digit symbol coding 56 (28-89) 42 (13-72) < .”
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“In cognitive aging research, this well-established measure of basic cognitive processing speed has been shown to explain a large proportion of the variance in older adults’ performance in a range of higher-order cognitive functions (Salthouse, 1996).”
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“…data, and has been successfully applied in the area of cognitive aging (e.g. ( Ratcliff, Thapar, & McKoon, 2004; Spaniol, Madden, & Voss, 2006)., This literature has challenged the view that longer response times in older adults reflect general age-related cognitive slowing (Salthouse, 1996).”
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“Presently, there is prevailing debate on the cognitive processes underlying the association between working memory (WM) and psychometric intelligence (Burgaleta & Colom, 2008; Salthouse, 1996; Shelton, Elliott, Matthews, Hill, & Gouvier, 2010; Troche & Rammsayer, 2009; Unsworth, Brewer, & Spillers, 2009).”
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“, RT task; McDowd & Craik, 1988) and have a general slowing of cognitive processing (Salthouse, 1996).”
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Delayed auditory feedback simulates features of nonfluent primary progressive aphasia
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“This was done to ensure that older adults would not have floor recall performance, given cognitive slowing with aging (Salthouse, 1996).”
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“Proportional slowing? In considering these RT effects, it is important to take into account generalized slowing in old age (Cerella, 1990; Myerson, Hale, Wagstaff, Poon, & Smith, 1990; Salthouse, 1996).”
Background

Authors: Salthouse, T. A.
Affiliations: Georgia Institute of Technology (US)
Corresponding author: Salthouse, Timothy A.
Venue: Psychological Review
Publisher: American Psychological Association (APA)
Published: 1996
Volume: 103
Issue: 3
Pages: 403-428
ISSN: 0033-295X (ISSN-L)
1939-1471
DOI: 10.1037/0033-295x.103.3.403
OpenAlex: W2039752037
Semantic Scholar: 8ed819fe682efc79801d73e6343885be23d36fb8
Cited by: 5,902
References: 113
Citations by year: 2026: 269 · 2025: 251 · 2024: 232 · 2023: 214 · 2022: 217 · 2021: 273 · 2020: 240 · 2019: 296 · 2018: 280 · 2017: 273 · 2016: 284 · 2015: 309 · 2014: 267 · 2013: 266 · 2012: 283
FWCI: 81.40
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Locations: Psychological Review (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders: National Institute on Aging (R37AG006826)
Topics: Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Aging and Gerontology Research
Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Functions and Memory
Keywords: processing speed, age differences in cognition, fluid intelligence, cognitive aging
MeSH terms: Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Attention, Cognition, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Reaction Time

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The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition

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