Walter R. Cunningham

Age Comparative Factor Analysis of Ability Variables in Adulthood and Old Age.

Abstract The generality of ability factor structure in adulthood and old age was investigated using simultaneous maximum likelihood procedures. Data were analyzed for 198 young individuals (age range of 15–32 years), 156 younger old individuals (age range of 53–68 years), and 156 older old individuals (69–91 years). Variables were nine tests marking three ability factors: Verbal Comprehension, Sensitivity to Problems and Semantic Redefinition. Results indicated no changes in the number of factors and no psychologically important shifts in salient factor loadings. Increasingly larger factor covariances, however, were obtained in the two older groups. The results supported the generalizability of ability structures to late life at the level of factor loadings. The implications of these results for the dedifferentiation hypothesis were not clear cut. The consistency of the number of factors across age groups precluded strong support for this hypothesis, The increased factor covariances could be construed as modest support for this hypothesis, but other interpretations were possible.

Age Changes in the Factor Structure of Intellectual Abilities in Adulthood and Old Age

The purpose of this research was to investigate the stability of the factor structure of intellectual abilities across the adult life-span. Army Alpha longitudinal data on the same 96 males tested in 1919, 1950, and 1960 were analyzed in addition to data on 123 undergraduates tested in 1972-4. Various longitudinal and time-lag simultaneous group factor analyses using the maximum likelihood approach suggested that the factor structure was changing with age. This variability was most pronounced in the 60 year old group. Time-lag comparisons between young adults in 1919 and young adults in the 1970’s showed considerable stability. In particular, a simultaneous analysis indicated that a model constraining both factor loadings and factor intercorrelations to be equal across groups was tenable. This result suggested considerable stability of structure within young adults over time. The results also suggest that traditional factor analytic taxonomies developed in the context of young adulthood may not represent suitable and adequate descriptions of the intellectual functioning of elderly persons. Such findings also

Adherence in childhood diabetes: results of a confirmatory factor analysis.

In an earlier study (Johnson, Silverstein, Rosenbloom, Carter, & Cunningham, 1986), an exploratory factor analysis identified five components of adherence in childhood diabetes. In this investigation, a simultaneous confirmatory analysis was used to test the equality of this factor pattern across two independent samples. Factors 1 through 4--Exercise, Injection, Diet Type, and Eating/Testing Frequency-were confirmed. Factor 5--Diet Amount--proved to be too complex; the adherence measures comprising this factor (total calories and concentrated sweets consumed) are best treated as separate, single-indicator constructs. The results support a multivariate conceptualization of adherence, offer insight into the nature of the components underlying diabetes adherence, and provide measurement information for reliable component estimation.

What is the evidence for retrieval problems in the elderly

To determine whether older adults experience particular problems with retrieval, groups of young and elderly adults were given free recall and recognition tests of supraspan lists of unrelated words. Analysis of number of words correctly recalled and recognized yielded a significant age by retention test interaction: greater age differences were observed for recall than for recognition. In a second analysis of words recalled and recognized, corrected for guessing, the interaction disappeared. It was concluded that previous interpretations that age by retention test interactions are indicative of retrieval problems of the elderly may have been confounded by methodological problems. Furthermore, it was suggested that researchers in aging and memory need to be explicit in identifying their underlying models of error processes when analyzing recognition scores: different error models may lead to different results and interpretations.

Adulthood Relocation: Implications for Personality, Future Orientation, and Social Partner Choices

The purpose of this study was to learn the reasons why individuals relocate and whether relocaters differ from nonrelocaters on demographic, social, and personality factors. One hundred participants from three age groups, 34 to 46 (young/middle-aged), 54 to 66 (young-old), and 69 to 93 (older) years, were designated as relocaters or residents as a function of months of residence. Relocaters did not differ from residents in age, income, health, or marital status. Reasons provided for relocating revealed the following differences: young/middle-aged moved for employment reasons, young-old moved for reasons of retirement, and older adults relocated to be closer to family members. No differences in network size occurred and older relocaters selected more cards in a social partner selection task. Most interesting was the finding that relocaters scored higher on Openness to Experience and future orientation. These data suggest personality may be an important trait that explains why some individuals are more likely to relocate.The purpose of this study was to learn the reasons why individuals relocate and whether relocaters differ from nonrelocaters on demographic, social, and personality factors. One hundred participants from three age groups, 34 to 46 (young/middle-aged), 54 to 66 (young-old), and 69 to 93 (older) years, were designated as relocaters or residents as a function of months of residence. Relocaters did not differ from residents in age, income, health, or marital status. Reasons provided for relocating revealed the following differences: young/middle-aged moved for employ ment reasons, young-old moved for reasons of retirement, and older adults relocated to be closer to family members. No differences in network size occurred and older relocaters selected more cards in a social partner selection task. Most interesting was the finding that relocaters scored higher on Openness to Experience and future orientation. These data suggest personality may be an important trait that explains why some individuals are more likely to relocate.

Factorial invariance: A methodological issue in the study of psychological development

Abstract In this paper, I will discuss an issue which is believed to be crucial to the study of psychological and social development in adulthood and old age. This issue comes under the forbidding label of Factorial Invariance. Factorial Invariance is concerned with the interrelationships between variables in a given domain and whether such relationships are uniform under various conditions such as age differences. Specifically, if we wish to measure the same construct in the same way in a sample of old and young individuals, it is crucial that the relationships between that operational variable of interest and other variables in that domain be stable. If such relationships are not stable, it is quite possible that we are not measuring the same variable in the same way with the same test procedures or questionnaires in the old as in the young. The purpose of this paper is to further elaborate this idea.

Age-Related Slowing on the Digit Symbol Task: Longitudinal and Cross-sectional Analyses

It is generally known that slowing on tasks like the Digit Symbol Substitution task occurs with age. However, simultaneous cross-sectional and longitudinal data are rare. The results from the cross-sectional analysis of Digit Symbol performance with age are compared to results from two occasion longitudinal analyses on the same task. The longitudinal data were obtained from 79 participants who were retested after 7 years and were between the ages of 48 and 73 years old at Time 1. Results indicated that the pattern of actual change observed in the longitudinal analyses replicated the simulated change indicated in the cross-sectional analysis. Antecedents were examined using the original cross-sectional sample of 150 participants. Significant relationships with Digit Symbol performance were found for age, education, and gender, but not for ratings of physical health.

The Age Comparative Construct Validity of Speeded Cognitive Factors

The age comparative construct validity of speeded cognitive processing tasks was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis. Reaction time and card sorting tasks which varied in complexity, and which were assumed to assess aspects of memory, speed of information processing, and selective attention, were administered to 141 young (X = 24.9) and 142 elderly (X = 65.3) adults. All simultaneous models were rejected. Since the confirmatory analyses were unsuccessful, exploratory analyses were undertaken. Independent analyses yielded three factors as hypothesized for the young adults but unexpectedly five factors for the elderly adults. One extra factor for the older subjects appeared to represent strategy differences while the other may be an order artifact. Although the age comparative validity for the three primary factors seems to be supported, the results raised the possibility that speeded processing tasks with spatial content do not necessarily assess the same underlying constructs for adults at different points in the life span. These findings underscore the importance of establishing age comparative construct validity for cognitive processing tasks when the research goal is to compare the performance of diverse age groups.

The Structure of Cognitive Speed Measures in Old and Young Adults

The speed hypothesis attempts to explain changes in speed of intellectual functioning with increased age by postulating a central speed mechanism or, in a weaker version, multiple speed mechanisms. In this study the issue of structure of measures of speed was addressed by conducting simultaneous confirmatory factor analyses in two age groups at the level of first order and then at the level of second order factors. Sixteen speed measures were included. The analyses were performed in a sample of 149 elderly adults aged 58 to 73 and in a sample of 147 young adults aged 18 to 33. Five first order factors of speed were found, as hypothesized. A model assuming both invariance of factor loadings and of factor intercorrelations was found to fit well the data. Three second order speed factors were necessary to account for the relationships between the first order speed factors, suggesting that a weak version of the speed hypothesis is correct.

Relative roles of cognitive ability and practical intelligence in the prediction of success.

Initial investigations into the construct of practical intelligence have identified a new general factor of practical intelligence (gp), which is believed to be independent of general cognitive ability. This construct, gp, is also believed to be a better predictor of success than cognitive ability, personality, or any combination of variables independent of gp. The existence of this construct and its independence from Spearmans g is, however, under debate. The purpose of the present study is to investigate both the relationship between gp and g and the relative roles of practical intelligence and cognitive ability in the prediction of success. The participants included 197 college students. Each completed both the Multidimensional Aptitude Battery and Sternberg and Wagners measure of practical intelligence in academic psychology. The results of structural equation modeling support Sternberg and Wagners assertion that practical intelligence and general cognitive ability are relatively independent constructs. Results of regression analysis, however, do not support their contention that practical intelligence is related to success after controlling for general cognitive ability. Implications of these results for research and theory on practical intelligence are discussed.