Is Education Level a Modulation Factor of Cognitive Abilities in Older Individuals?

Abstract

Purpose: Similar to bilingualism, musical abilities, socio-economic status, and physical activities; education level also plays a contributing factor to cognitive reserve in an individual. Literature suggests that educational level and years of schooling enhance cognitive development and also show a correlation with better Intelligence Quotient. It is important to consider the level of education and its relationship with cognitive abilities particularly assessed on standardized cognitive tests which were not considered in earlier research.Methods: The present study recruited 25 native Kannada speakers aged 50 to 70 years and divided them into two groups based on level of education (lower education and higher education group). All the participants were assessed on Cognitive Linguistic Assessment Protocol (CLAP)-Kannada (Kamath & Prema, 2001). The performance scores were tabulated and analyzed across all the domains of the test.Results: Descriptive statistics highlighted that the higher education group had greater overall scores and also across the domains compared to their counterparts. Inferential statistics utilizing the Mann-Whitney U test found a significant difference between the two groups on overall performance and also across the domains with high effect size. Both groups performed poorly in the organization domain, attributed to task demands that need a greater level of processing skills.Conclusions: The current study highlights that higher education levels influence better cognitive function and that this effect persists with age as compared to the lower education levels group indicating higher educational levels can help an individual to resist the effects of the aging process on cognitive function decline.