Relation of working memory updating to processing speed in cognitive aging

The study was conducted to investigate the roles of working memory updating in cognitive aging and its relation to processing speed. 142 adults between 18 and 85 years of age performed a set of updating, processing speed, and fluid cognitive tasks. The results indicated that reductions in updating were associated with increased age, and greater efficiency in performing updating tasks was associated with better performance on memory, reasoning, and spatial tasks. Furthermore, this pattern was unchanged when processing speed was considered. These results suggest that age-related deficits in cognitive system are specific to particular basic control processes in working memory