Use it or Lose it? What Predicts Age-Related Declines in Cognitive Performance in Elderly Adults?

Psychologists have suggested two possible causes of declines in cognitive performance with age: declines in cognitive capacity (e.g., working memory), and the level of stimulation in their environments. Fourteen college students (mean age=21 years, SD=1.65), seven middle-aged (40-59, mean age=51, SD=4.8), and five elderly (60+, mean age=74.8, SD=8.3) participants completed a series of assessments including simple and complex measures of processing and reasoning and assessments of cognitive stimulation. The results indicated that working memory declines with age and that these declines predicted performance on complex reasoning tasks while cognitive stimulation was unrelated to performance