Cognitive and neuropsychological profiles of the elderly

Abstract

Testing the cognitive functions of the elderly is often eclectic and atheoretical. We take a theoretical model, simultaneous and successive processing, and the tests derived from it to describe the cognitive functions of the elderly. Subsequently, the performance of an elderly sample on a battery of neuropsychological tests is examined and also understood in relation to the two processing modes. Subjects were 81 individuals, 75 years old, from a population of nearly 300 persons participating in a Finnish research project on aging. They were administered tests of simultaneous and successive processing as well as an extensive battery of neuropsychological tasks. Multivariate and univariate analyses of variance, factor analyses, and cluster analyses were used to process the data. Results showed that three groups of individuals can be distinguished in terms of their cognitive and neuropsychological test performance: (a) those who were good in both simultaneous and successive processing; (b) those who were poor in simultaneous processing, but not poor in successive processing; and finally, (c) those who were poor in successive processing but not poor in simultaneous processing. Discussion focused on multiple patterns of normal aging and the possibility of relating the cognitive profiles to everyday life skills. The advantage of a theoretical model that allowed for multiple cognitive profiles and had the potential for guiding cognitive remediation was also discussed.