Executive Functioning in Healthy Aged Population in comparison to Young Adults Using Cognitive Estimation Test

Abstract

Abstract Background and objective: Cognitive estimation is an important task in which people engage themselves in estimating the environment in different aspects of their life, such as; distance, quantity, size, weight etc The study was taken up to evaluate the cognitive estimation skills in Healthy Aged Population in comparison to Young Adults. Methodology: A total of 40 healthy young and old adults participated in the study. The participants were divided into two groups. Cognitive Estimation Test (CET) was administered for both the groups. The CET, was modified to suit Indian population consisted of 18 questions under the domains of distance, quantity, size, weight, temperature and time. Responses were scored for Under-estimation (UE), Over-estimation (OE), Approximate answer (AA), and No answer (NA). Number of UE, OE, AA, and NA were calculated. Independent t-test was employed to find out the significant differences between the means of both the groups. Results: Results revealed that young adults were better in estimating the environment when compared to healthy aged population, which was significant .Distance and size dimensions were remarkably affected in comparison to all other dimensions. Instances of No answers (NA) were higher in healthy aged population in comparison to young adults. Conclusion: The results indicate that, the decline in cognitive estimation abilities is a part of healthy aging rather than a pathological condition. Thus CET can be used as a tool in the assessment and management of cognitive disorders.