| 1. |
- Habib, Reza, et al.
(författare)
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Cognitive and non-cognitive factors contributing to the longitudinal identification of successful older adults in the Betula study.
- 2007
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Ingår i: Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition.. - Lisse : Swets & Zeitlinger. ; 14:3, s. 257-273
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Studies of successful aging have typically defined elderly who fall in the upper end of a distribution of test scores as successful. A different definition of successful aging requires that older adults fall at or above the mean level of younger adults and maintain this level over time. Here we examined this definition of successful aging in a sample of 1463 individuals between 50 to 85 years of age. Based on principal coordinate analysis of cognitive and non-cognitive variables, we identified a group of 55 (8.3%) 70-85 years olds that were high functioning. This group of elderly showed elevated performance on a range of cognitive tasks. Non-cognitive factors that characterized this group included education and subjective health. The participants were re-tested 5 years later and the same type of analysis was repeated. Of the remaining individuals who initially were classified as high functioning, 18 (35%) remained high functioning and thus met the definition for successful aging. Years of education was a significant predictor of who remained successful over time.
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| 2. |
- Nilsson, Lars-Göran, et al.
(författare)
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Betula : a prospective cohort study on memory, health and aging
- 2004
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Ingår i: Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition. - Hove : Psychology Press. - 1382-5585 .- 1744-4128. ; 11:2-3, s. 134-148
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article describes the Betula Study with respect to objectives, design, participants, and assessment instruments for health and cognition. Three waves of data collection have been completed in 5-year intervals since 1988-1990. A fourth wave started in 2003 and will be completed in 2005. An overview of Betula research is presented under the headings of memory and cognition and cognitive neuroscience. Health-related issues and sex differences as well as comparisons between cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are discussed in the first section. The influence of different genes and of some brain abnormalities for memory functioning in adulthood and old age constitute main topics in the second section. New data are presented on the association between blood pressure and dementia. We demonstrated that a demented group of participants had higher levels of systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure than non-dementia controls 10 years before diagnosis. The new fourth wave of data collection will, in addition to enriching the Betula database, permit revisiting and reanalyzing the existing data from new perspectives.
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| 3. |
- Sandberg, Petra, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Executive process training in young and old adults
- 2014
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Ingår i: Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition. - : Taylor & Francis. - 1382-5585 .- 1744-4128. ; 21:5, s. 577-605
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is a growing body of research on the modifiability of executive functions in different stages of life. Previous studies demonstrate robust training effects but limited transfer in younger and particularly in older adults. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether a theoretically derived intervention for executive functioning, addressing several basic processes (updating, shifting, and inhibition), can induce transfer effects in early and late adulthood. Fifty-nine healthy adults, 29 young and 30 older adults, were randomly assigned to either training or no-contact control groups. The training groups received 15 sessions of executive process training for about 45 min/session during 5 weeks. A test battery including a criterion task and near, intermediate, and far transfer tasks was administered before and after training. Results showed pronounced age-equivalent gains on the criterion task. Near transfer was seen to non-trained updating and inhibition tasks for the young and older trained participants. However, only the young adults showed intermediate transfer to two complex working memory tasks. No far transfer effects were seen for either age group. These findings provide additional evidence for age-related constraints in the ability to generalize acquired executive skills, and specifically show that training of multiple executive processes is not sufficient to foster transfer beyond the very near in older adults.
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