Reaction Time, Age, and Cognitive Ability: Longitudinal Findings from Age 16 to 63 Years in Representative Population Samples
Authors: Deary, Ian1; Der, Geoff2
Source: Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition (Neuropsychology, Development and Cogniti, Volume 12, Number 2, June 2005 , pp. 187-215(29)
Publisher: Psychology Press, part of the Taylor & Francis Group
Key:
- Free Content
- New Content
- Subscribed Content
- Free Trial Content
- Free Content
- New Content
- Subscribed Content
- Free Trial Content
Abstract:
Reaction time variables are used widely in studies of human cognitive ageing and in research on the information processing foundations of psychometric intelligence. The research is largely based on biased population samples. In the present study, large (500+), representative samples of the population of the West of Scotland were tested at ages 16, 36 and 56 years on simple and choice reaction time. Participants were re-tested eight years later, at which time they also took the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT). We report simple and choice reaction time means and their variabilities, their stability across 8 years, and their correlations with the PASAT. Simple and choice reaction times become slower and more variable with age. Women from age 36 to 63 show more variability in choice reaction times than men, an effect which remains after controlling for mean reaction time. Reaction time differences largely account for age differences, but not sex differences, in PASAT scores.Document Type: Research article
DOI: 10.1080/13825580590969235
Affiliations: 1: University of Edinburgh, UK 2: MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, Glasgow, UK
Key:
- Free Content
- New Content
- Subscribed Content
- Free Trial Content
- Free Content
- New Content
- Subscribed Content
- Free Trial Content
Click here for Page Help