Education does not protect against age-related decline of switching focal attention in working memory.

Full Abstract

In this experimental study, effects of age and education on switching focal attention in working memory were investigated among 44 young (20-30 years) and 40 middle-aged individuals (50-60 years). To this end, a numeric n-back task comprising two lag conditions (1- and 2-back) was administered within groups. The results revealed a comparable increase of reaction time as a function of lag across age groups, but a disproportionate decrease of accuracy in the middle-aged relative to the young group. The latter effect did not interact with education, which challenges the cognitive reserve hypothesis. Moreover, the high-educated middle-aged participants showed a greater increase of reaction time as a function of lag than their low-educated counterparts. Apparently, they were not able to sustain their relatively high response speed across conditions. These results suggest that education does not protect against age-related decline of switching focal attention in working memory.

Learn Faster Today Improve your study skills

Author information

Author/s: Van Gerven, Pascal W M (PW); Meijer, Willemien A (WA); Jolles, Jelle (J);

Affiliation: Maastricht University, Faculty of Psychology, Department of Neurocognition, Maastricht, The Netherlands. p.vangerven(-atsign-)psychology.unimaas.nl

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article

Journal: Brain and cognition (Brain Cogn), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Jul; vol 64 (issue 2) : pp 158-63

Dates: Created 2007/06/19; Completed 2007/08/29;

PMID: 17397977, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article (including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.

MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adult
Aging - physiology
Analysis of Variance
Attention - physiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Educational Status
Female

Field Dependence-Independence
Humans
Male
Memory, Short-Term - physiology
Middle Aged
Reaction Time - physiology
Reference Values

These are the highest related articles currently in the database:

See 100+ related articles.