K. Warner Schaie

Annual review of gerontology and geriatrics

The contributors to this volume provide an overview of each component of the acute and long-term care service continuum, including managed health care, subacute care, nursing homes, community care case management, and private case management. This volume is one of the first efforts to place these varied approaches side-by-side, highlighting the gaps and areas of duplication in the services delivery system. In addition, chapters address the emerging practices in long-term care financing and assisted living as well as the conceptual issues that need to be resolved to achieve acute and chronic care integration. This volume is of primary importance to professionals involved in long-term care, including administration, community nursing, social work, case management, discharge planning and policy.

The Course of Adult Intellectual Development.

A program of research is summarized that represents the authors lifelong efforts to understand the adult life course of intellectual abilities. The Seattle Longitudinal Study has assessed mental abilities in more than 5,000 adults and has followed some for as long as 35 years. Integrative findings are provided on patterns and magnitudes of age changes, cohort differences, factor structure of mental abilities, antecedents for individual differences in aging trajectories, and interventions designed to remediate cognitive aging effects.

Developmental influences on adult intelligence : the Seattle longitudinal study

1. Introduction and Preview 2. Methodological Issues 3. The Database 4. Cross-Sectional Studies 5. Longitudinal Studies 6. Studies of Cohort and Period Differences 7. Intervention Studies 8. Methodological Studies 9. The Relationship Between Cognitive Styles and Intellectual Functioning 10. Health and Maintenance of Intellectual Functioning 11. Health Behaviors and Intellectual Functioning 12. Lifestyle Variables That Affect Intellectual Functioning 13. The Sequential Study of Personality Traits and Attitudes 14. Influences of Personality on Cognition 15. Family Studies of Intellectual Abilities in Adulthood 16. Subjective Perceptions of Cognitive Change 17. Influences of Family Environment on Cognition 18. Biological Influences on Cognitive Change 19. The Prediction of Individual Cognitive Decline 20. The Role of Longitudinal Studies in the Early Detection of Dementia 21. Summary and Conclusions Appendix Tables References Index

A cross-sequential study of age changes in cognitive behavior.

Previous cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of age changes over the adult life span have reported contradictory age gradients. The apparent contradiction was assessed by means of a new research design, called the crosssequential method, which involves the repeated measurement of members of a cross-sectional sample. The SRA Primary Mental Abilities Test (PMA) and Schaies Test of Behavioral Rigidity (TBR) were administered to a stratifiedrandom sample of 500 5s with quotas of 25 men and 25 women in each 5-yr. age interval from 20 to 70 yrs. 7 yr. later all 5s who could be located were contacted and 302 5s were retested. Significant cross-sectional age changes were found for all variables studied, but longitudinal age changes occurred for all cohorts only for those variables where response speed was of importance. Analysis of the comparative age gradients suggests that age changes over time within a given individual appear to be much smaller than differences between cohorts and that the steep textbook age gradients represent no more than the effects of increased environmental opportunity and/or genetic changes in the species. Further implications with respect to revisions in current thinking on adult age changes are discussed. One of the pervading problems troubling the developmental psychologist who is interested in studying age changes over the adult life span has been the consistent reporting of contradictory age gradients found as the result of cross-section al and longitudinal inquiries. Many cross-sectional studies report peak performance in the early twenties or thirties with steep decrement gradients thereafter (cf. Horn & Cattell, 1966; Jones & Conrad, 1933; Schaie, 1958; Schaie, Rosenthai, & Perlman, 19S3). Most longitudinal studies, on the other hand, report no decrement at all. In fact, slight gains in performance are recorded at least into the midfifties (Bayley & Oden, 19SS; Owens, 1953). It has been argued that these contradictory findings can be accounted for by systematic sample attrition in the longitudinal studies, which tends to eliminate more subjects of low ability. It has been observed that none of the longitudinal studies has yet reached the sixties and seventies, the age range where the greatest decrement has been noted in the cross-sec

Training the elderly on the ability factors of spatial orientation and inductive reasoning.

We examined the effects of cognitive training with elderly participants from the Seattle Longitudinal Study. Subjects were classified as having remained stable or having declined over the previous 14-year interval on each of two primary abilities, spatial orientation and inductive reasoning. Subjects who had declined on one of these abilities received training on that ability; subjects who had declined on both abilities or who had remained stable on both were randomly assigned to the spatial orientation or inductive reasoning training programs. Training outcomes were examined within an ability-measurement framework with empirically determined factorial structure. Significant training effects, at the level of the latent ability constructs, occurred for both spatial orientation and inductive reasoning. These effects were general, in that no significant interactions with decline status or gender were found. Thus, training interventions were effective both in remediating cognitive decline on the target abilities and in improving the performance of stable subjects.

The Seattle Longitudinal Study: Relationship Between Personality and Cognition

This article reviews the history, measures and principal findings of the Seattle Longitudinal Study. This study began in 1956 focusing upon age differences and age changes in cognitive abilities. Its sampling frame is a large HMO in the Pacific Northwest. The study has been expanded to investigate various influences on cognitive aging including, cognitive styles, personality traits, life styles, and family environment. Current interest is also in the early detection of risk for dementia. In addition, this article reports original analyses of the relation of personality dimensions to cognitive abilities (both concurrent and longitudinal). While personality remains relatively stable over the adult life span, modest proportions of variance are shared between various personality traits and the cognitive abilities.

Toward a stage theory of adult cognitive development.

Specifications are offered for a stage theory of adult cognitive development. It is argued that cognitive processes are differentially organized and expressed during periods labeled as acquisitive, achieving, responsible, executive and reintegrative. Current psychometric technologies may suffice for the description of cognitive behavior during the acquisitive and achieving periods. Such techniques are inadequate, however, to describe and understand cognitive function beyond young adulthood, and the development of novel technologies is suggested for the study of cognitive development in mid-life and old age.

Age difference patterns of psychometric intelligence in adulthood : generalizability within and across ability domains

Cross-sectional data from the 5th (1984) wave of the Seattle Longitudinal Study are reported with regard to the generalizability of age differences in psychometric intelligence within and across ability domains. Ss were 1,628 community-dwelling individuals drawn from a Pacific Northwest health maintenance organization. Age difference patterns of 9 groups with mean ages from 29 to 88 years are examined for the ability domains of verbal ability, spatial orientation, inductive reasoning, numeric ability, verbal memory, and perceptual speed. Each ability is marked by 3 or 4 observed variables.

What Can We Learn From Longitudinal Studies of Adult Development

This article distinguishes between normal and pathological aging, provides an interdisciplinary context, and then considers a sample case of cognitive aging. Developmental influences on cognition include the physiological infrastructure, genetic predispositions, and environmental influences. Different types of longitudinal studies are distinguished, and contrasting findings of cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are examined in the sample case of the Seattle Longitudinal Study. Also considered is the longitudinal context for intervention studies and the role of longitudinal family studies in assessing rate of aging and generational differences in rates of aging. Finally, attention is given to the role of longitudinal studies in the early detection of risk for dementia in advanced age.

A Reinterpretation of Age Related Changes in Cognitive Structure and Functioning

ABSTRACT Chronological aging as a frame of reference for the study of developmental phenomena is widely used but not very well understood. The three dimensions of age differences, age changes, and cultural change are often confused with one another and each in turn is at times erroneously taken as an estimate of developmental change. The general developmental model defining the interrelation between these dimensions is further explicated in this chapter. Particular attention is paid to the effect of generational differences and the literature is examined for examples where differentiation of generational effects from maturational change and environmental impact may properly be attempted. At the same time, attention is given to different classes of cognitive variables (i.e., crystallized and fluid intelligence) which by virtue of their presumed environmental or biogenic mediation are helpful in understanding the relationship between generational differences and common environmental impact at specified times of measurement. Environmental impact between times of measurement is found to be of marked importance in children and in measures of fluid intelligence in adults, while generational differences appear to account for substantial portions of variance in studies of adult age changes on measures of crystallized intelligence.