Mental flexibility: age effects on switching

Mental flexibility is required to track and systematically alternate between 2 response sets. In this study, 719 individuals, 20 to 89 years old, engaged in 3 different tasks that required verbal and nonverbal cognitive switching. Of importance, each task allowed for independent measurement of component skills that are embedded in the higher level tasks. When gender, education, Full Scale IQ, and component skills were partialed out by multiple regression analyses, significant age effects were revealed for each task. This study provides evidence that executive functions--and verbal and nonverbal cognitive switching in particular--are affected by age independently from age-related changes in component skills. The results are discussed in terms of theories of executive control and neurologic correlates across the adult life span.