No evidence for a common factor underlying visual abilities in healthy older people
Date
2019
Editor(s)
Advisor
Supervisor
Co-Advisor
Co-Supervisor
Instructor
Source Title
Developmental Psychology
Print ISSN
0012-1649
Electronic ISSN
Publisher
American Psychological Association
Volume
55
Issue
8
Pages
1775 - 1787
Language
English
Type
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
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Abstract
The world’s population is aging at an increasing rate. Even in the absence of neurodegenerative disorders, healthy aging affects perception and cognition. In the context of cognition, common factors are well established. Much less is known about common factors for vision. Here, we tested 92 healthy older and 104 healthy younger participants in 19 visual tests (including visual search and contrast sensitivity) and three cognitive tests (including verbal fluency and digit span). Unsurprisingly, younger participants performed better than older participants in almost all tests. Surprisingly, however, the performance of older participants was mostly uncorrelated between visual tests, and we found no evidence for a common factor.