ArticleThe journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences2022
When I'm 64: Age-Related Variability in Over 40,000 Online Cognitive Test Takers.
Article in The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 26 papers.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- Age-related changes in behavioural and neural variability in a decision-making task.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Education, Cognitive Reserve, and Brain Pathology in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease: Evidence from Preclinical and Symptomatic Cohorts.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Game-Based Assessment of Spatial Cognition Across a Wide Age Range.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Neurophysiological Characteristics Associated with Driving Abilities in Older Adults: A Scoping Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Review
- A roadmap for conducting more inclusive research on brain resilience in ageing and dementia.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2026Review
- Cognitive dispersion in established adulthood: etiology and implications for cognitive aging.Innovation in aging · 2026Article
- Modulation of fronto-parietal and autonomic activity underpins preserved working memory in middle-aged adults.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Article
- Article
- Nonlinear Lifespan Trajectories of Memory and Fluid Reasoning: A Longitudinal GAMM Study.Research square · 2025Article
- Underestimating the Relationship: Unpacking Both Socioeconomic Resources and Cognitive Function and Decline in Midlife to Later Life.Journal of health and social behavior · 2025Article
- Variation in brain aging: A review and perspective on the utility of individualized approaches to the study of functional networks in aging.Neurobiology of aging · 2025Review
- Sex Matters: Association with Superager Classification and Risk Factors.Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists · 2025Article
- Modifiable dementia risk factors associated with objective and subjective cognition.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2024Article
- Can an online battery match in-person cognitive testing in providing information about age-related cortical morphology?Brain imaging and behavior · 2024Article
- Novel computerized neurocognitive test battery is sensitive to cancer-related cognitive deficits in survivors.Journal of cancer survivorship : research and practice · 2024Article
- Reduction in metabolic noise reveals rejuvenation following transient severe caloric restriction.GeroScience · 2024Article
- Ecological validity of cognitive fluctuations in dementia with Lewy bodies.Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society : JINS · 2024Article
- Feasibility and reliability of online vs in-person cognitive testing in healthy older people.PloS one · 2024Article
- Brain health assessment. An exploratory review of tools related to its cognitive dimension.Cerebral circulation - cognition and behavior · 2024Article
- Epigenetic Age Acceleration and Chronological Age: Associations With Cognitive Performance in Daily Life.The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectivesAge-related differences in cognition are typically assessed by comparing groups of older to younger participants, but little is known about the continuous trajectory of cognitive changes across age, or when a shift to older adulthood occurs. We examined the pattern of mean age differences and variability on episodic memory and executive function measures over the adult life span, in a more fine-grained way than past group or life-span comparisons.
methodWe used a sample of over 40,000 people aged 18-90 who completed psychometrically validated online tests measuring episodic memory and executive functions (the Cogniciti Brain Health Assessment).
resultsCognitive performance declined gradually over adulthood, and rapidly later in life on spatial working memory, processing speed, facilitation (but not interference), associative recognition, and set shifting. Both polynomial and segmented regression fit the data well, indicating a nonlinear pattern. Segmented regression revealed a shift from gradual to rapid decline that occurred in the early 60s. Variability between people (interindividual variability or diversity) and variability within a person across tasks (intraindividual variability or dispersion) also increased gradually until the 60s, and rapidly after. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed a single general factor (of variance shared between tasks) offered a good fit for performance across tasks. DISCUSSION: Life-span cognitive performance shows a nonlinear pattern, with gradual decline over early and mid-adulthood, followed by a transition in the 60s to notably accelerated, but more variable, decline. Some people show less decline than others, and some cognitive abilities show less within-person decline than others.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.