Short-term fluctuations in elderly people's sensorimotor functioning predict text and spatial memory performance: The MacArthur successful aging studies

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Shu Chen Li - , Max Planck Institute for Human Development (Author)
  • Steven H. Aggen - , Virginia Commonwealth University (Author)
  • John R. Nesselroade - , University of Virginia (Author)
  • Paul B. Baltes - , Max Planck Institute for Human Development (Author)

Abstract

Background: While age-related increases of between-person variability in a variety of cognitive measures are commonly reported in cross-sectional studies, the nature of short-term intraindividual fluctuation in elderly people's performance is relatively unexplored. Objective: The goal of the present study is to examine short-term fluctuations in elderly people's sensorimotor functioning and their relations to individual differences in verbal and spatial memory. Methods: Fluctuations in old adults' (mean = 75.71 years, SD = 6.93 years) sensorimotor performance were investigated by biweekly measurements spanning approximately 7 months. Sensorimotor performance was measured by three walking tasks, including the duration and the number of steps taken to walk a 360-degree circle and to walk 10 feet both at normal and fast pace. Performances of verbal and spatial memory were assessed by weekly measurements of digit memory span, memory for short text and spatial recognition. Results: The magnitude of intraindividual fluctuation in most sensorimotor and memory tasks examined was at least half as great as the level of individual differences across persons. In addition, intraindividual fluctuation in sensorimotor performance is a relatively stable individual attribute, which correlates positively with age and negatively with the levels of sensorimotor, text and spatial memory performance. Although a substantial amount of individual differences in intraindividual fluctuation was shared with mean performance level, variance component and hierarchical regression analyses showed that intraindividual fluctuation in walking steps added significant independent contribution over and above that given by level of performance in predicting text and spatial memory. Conclusion: Taking these results together, we suggest that intraindividual fluctuations in elderly people's performance should not be ignored or simply treated as measurement error; rather, they are potentially important empirical variables for understanding sensory and cognitive aging and the nature of intraindividual response variations in general.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)100-116
Number of pages17
JournalGerontology
Volume47
Issue number2
Publication statusPublished - 2001
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

External IDs

PubMed 11287736
ORCID /0000-0001-8409-5390/work/142254969

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Keywords

  • Cognitive aging, Intraindividual variability/fluctuation, Memory, Neuromodulation, Neuromotor noise, Sensorimotor performance

Library keywords