2011/03/02 by Timothy A. Salthouse, Timothy Salthouse · 827 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Adult development #Aging and Gerontology Research #Cognition #Cognitive Abilities and Testing #Cognitive psychology #Cognitive skill #Developmental psychology #Everyday life #Psychology #Retirement, Disability, and Employment #Variety (cybernetics)
paper · open access · doi:10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100328
published in Annual Review of Psychology 63(1), 201-226 (Annual Reviews)
openalex publication_date 2011/03/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Adult age differences in a variety of cognitive abilities are well documented, and many of those abilities have been found to be related to success in the workplace and in everyday life. However, increased age is seldom associated with lower levels of real-world functioning, and the reasons for this lab-life discrepancy are not well understood. This article briefly reviews research concerned with relations of age to cognition, relations of cognition to successful functioning outside the laboratory, and relations of age to measures of work performance and achievement. The final section discusses several possible explanations for why there are often little or no consequences of age-related cognitive declines in everyday functioning.