SHIFTING LEVELS OF ANALYSIS IN THE INVESTIGATION OF COGNITIVE AGING

Questions can be raised regarding the progress that has been achieved in accounting for the well-documented negative relations between chronological age during adulthood and fluid or process aspects of cognition. Advances in knowledge may have been limited in part because many researchers have ignored age-related influences that are common to a number of dependent variables. Two procedures are discussed that appear to have the potential to distinguish between general or common age-related influences and unique or specific age-related influences. Adoption of these or similar procedures is recommended to increase the cumulative nature of research and to facilitate integration of results from different research areas.