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This paper shows how the results of research on cognitive aging converge to support the theory that slowing with age is centralized and systematic. Based on this observation, a technique for detecting early differences between normal and pathological change in cognition is proposed. Aging and Cognition The purpose of this paper is to determine whether changes in cognition over time are systematic and whether pathological changes can be differentiated from normal changes. A technique using regression analysis of cognitive assessment data is proposed that may be useful for clinicians in evaluating cognitive change in older adults. The term cognitive aging has been used in recent years to denote cross-sectional differences and longitudinal changes in cognitive functioning in old age. A review of findings of cognitive aging research contained in the Handbook of the Psychology of Aging (e.g., Craik, 1977, Poon, 1985 ; Hultsch & Dixon, 1990, Smith, 1996) shows three general clusters of results:(1) most cognitive functions decline in old age. The speed of information processing slows down with age ; (2) for persons of the same age, there is vast individual difference in cognitive performances ; (3) although many postulations have been put forward to describe cognitive aging phenomena, no extant theories adequately explain the causes of observed age-related decline in cognition. Jenkins (1979) proposed a conceptual model for understanding cognitive performances. The model noted four major interacting factors that are relevant to cognitive performances:(1)characteristics of the individual (e.g., age, skills,knowledge),(2)cognitive strategies (e.g.,organization,elaboration),(3)criterial tasks (e.g., recognition, recall, problem solving,) , and (4) nature of the material (e.g., organizational structure, difficulty). The observed cognitive performance is the sum of, or interaction among, these four factors. While the criterial task and nature of the material may be kept constant in an experiment, variation in the characteristics and cognitive strategies of the individuals is sufficiently large that a diversity of performances is usually observed. In cognitive aging research, an individual's characteristics and cognitive strategies are of primary interest.Chronological age represents not only a person's physiological function or dysfunction but also reflects the person's level of development, maturity, and experience. Information processing performance would be enhanced when a person's experience is consonant with the nature of the experimental stimuli or criterion task. FIGURE 1 represents an example of such interaction in a naming latency experiment that evaluated the speed of retrieval from memory of very familiar information (Poon & Fozard, 1978). Young, middle-aged, and older adults named pictures of objects. Some of 1 The author is indebted to Professor Nobuo Ohta for an invitation to lecture at the University of Tsukuba during his stay in Japan in 1996. Special acknowledgment is extended to Dr. Yoshiko Shimonaka, Mr. Yasuyuki Gondo, and Mr. Osamu Ishihara of the Toyko Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology and the Japan Foundation for Aging and Health. Address reprint requests to Professor Leonard W. Poon, University of Georgia Gerontology Center, 100 Candler Hall, Athens, Georgia, USA 30602.

Cognitive Slowing with Age: Implications for the Clinical Diagnosis of Pathology