Cognitive Structure and Real Life Implementation of Scripts in Late Adulthood

Abstract

Previous research has demonstrated that healthy senescent cohorts manifest marked impairment in cognitive performance, particularly on tests of executive functions. Studies directly investigating ADL have found mild and tardive impairment in senescence, and a relation with certain executive functions, but the targeted ADL were very simple tasks such as memorizing a telephone number or walking a few meters and have always been strictly limited to the accuracy domain–excluding any speed factor. The purpose of the present study was (1) to investigate performance, in an experimentally controlled manner, in normal senescent cohorts, on one of the most complex ADL (planning and preparing a meal under time pressure), more indicative of true quality of life of senior citizens, and (2) to scrutinize its cognitive structure. A large battery of tests of executive function, including a script generation task were also administered. It was found that despite numerous marked impairments on tests of executive function, this particular ADL was not globally impaired even in advanced senescence. This finding suggests that the combination of deep proceduralization over a lifetime and continued daily practice suffice to maintain complex ADL, i.e., quality of life, well into late senescence, despite important decline in cognitive resources.