When I'm 64: Age-Related Variability in Over 40,000 Online Cognitive Test Takers

Age-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.

We 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).

Cognitive 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.

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.