Abstract
The shared decline in cognitive abilities, sensory functions (e.g., vision and hearing), and physical health with increasing age is well documented with some research attributing this shared age-related decline to a single common cause (e.g., aging brain). We evaluate the extent to which the common cause hypothesis predicts associations between vision and physical health with social cognition abilities specifically face perception and face memory. Based on a sample of 443 adults (17–88 years old), we test a series of structural equation models, including Multiple Indicator Multiple Cause (MIMIC) models, and estimate the extent to which vision and self-reported physical health are related to face perception and face memory through a common factor, before and after controlling for their fluid cognitive component and the linear effects of age. Results suggest significant shared variance amongst these constructs, with a common factor explaining some, but not all, of the shared age-related variance. Also, we found that the relations of face perception, but not face memory, with vision and physical health could be completely explained by fluid cognition. Overall, results suggest that a single common cause explains most, but not all age-related shared variance with domain specific aging mechanisms evident.
Highlights
The decline in fluid cognitive abilities across the adult lifespan, including particular components like mental speed, fluid intelligence, and working memory, is a well-known phenomenon
Face Cognition and Vision Our results indicate that face memory is positively related with vision
We can conclude that a common factor explains most, but not all, of the shared variance, rejecting a strict interpretation of the common cause hypothesis as it applies to social cognition, and instead our results suggests domain general and domain specific aging mechanisms
Summary
The decline in fluid cognitive abilities across the adult lifespan, including particular components like mental speed, fluid intelligence, and working memory, is a well-known phenomenon (see Lövdén and Lindenberger, 2005, for a review). An alternative explanation for the proposed downward slopes in fluid cognition, sensory functions, and physical health is that each of these factors has a unique negative relation with age This causes each function to decline and to appear subject to a general factor, which, is essentially merely a statistical artifact (Salthouse et al, 1998). This explanation was supported by research that showed controlling for age reduced the relation between these variables, indicating the common cause to be more of a statistical artifact than a genuine overall factor. This explanation has not been supported elsewhere (e.g., Christensen et al, 2001)
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