Psychological Development and Education ›› 2011, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (6): 591-598.

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The Role of Education in Cognitive Aging

GAO Yue, PENG Hua-mao, WEN Jing, WANG Da-hua   

  1. Institute of Developmental Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
  • Online:2011-11-15 Published:2011-11-15

Abstract: In order to investigate the role of education in cognitive aging,cross-sectional data and intervention data were used to analyze the impact pattern of education on cognitive aging.51 community-dwelling order adults, ranging in age from 58 to 83 years,participated this study.The subjects took two baseline tests of processing speed and a battery of primary mental abilities tests.The training group including 25 participants received five sessions of training in processing speed.All participants undertook a post-training test with the same measuring tools 8 weeks later.The analysis of cross-sectional data showed that in four primary mental abilities tests,education had a moderating effect on age differences in cognitive ability,that is to say,to the subjects with higher educational level, the rate of cognitive decline with age was slower than those with lower educational level.Intervention data showed that there was a significant effect of intervention on processing speed,and a transfer effect to verbal fluency test was observed.However,the results of correlation and regression analysis showed that there was no significant positive effect of education on training gains and transfer gains for old people.For obtaining and using new knowledge,the effect of education is not significant.The role of education in cognitive aging may lie more in protecting the inherent cognitive abilities.

Key words: cognitive aging, education, processing speed, intervention, transfer

CLC Number: 

  • B844.3
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