Adult Lifespan Cognitive Variability in the Cross-Sectional Cam-CAN Cohort

Emma Green, Meredith A. Shafto, Fiona E. Matthews, Cam-CAN and Simon R. White
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Emma Green: Department of Public Health and Primary Care, Cambridge Institute of Public Health, Univeristy of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2-0SR, UK
Meredith A. Shafto: Centre for Speech, Language and the Brain, Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2-3EB, UK
Fiona E. Matthews: MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge CB2-0SR, UK
Cam-CAN: Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN), University of Cambridge and MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK, www.cam-can.com
Simon R. White: MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge CB2-0SR, UK

IJERPH, 2015, vol. 12, issue 12, 1-15

Abstract: This study examines variability across the age span in cognitive performance in a cross-sectional, population-based, adult lifespan cohort from the Cambridge Centre for Ageing and Neuroscience (Cam-CAN) study ( n = 2680). A key question we highlight is whether using measures that are designed to detect age-related cognitive pathology may not be sensitive to, or reflective of, individual variability among younger adults. We present three issues that contribute to the debate for and against age-related increases in variability. Firstly, the need to formally define measures of central tendency and measures of variability. Secondly, in addition to the commonly addressed location-confounding (adjusting for covariates) there may exist changes in measures of variability due to confounder sub-groups. Finally, that increases in spread may be a result of floor or ceiling effects; where the measure is not sensitive enough at all ages. From the Cam-CAN study, a large population-based dataset, we demonstrate the existence of variability-confounding for the immediate episodic memory task; and show that increasing variance with age in our general cognitive measures is driven by a ceiling effect in younger age groups.

Keywords: cognitive variability; adult lifespan; heterogeneity; MMSE; ceiling effects; variance confounders; verbal fluency; episodic memory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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