Moderately
large negative relations between age and measures of certain
types of cognitive functioning have been documented for
over 80 years. In the last several decades the dominant
approach to explaining these age-related differences has
been to attempt to isolate the source of the age-related
differences in a specific component of processing. This
approach can be called the micro perspective because it
is focused on interpreting the age-related differences
in cognition in terms of effects on constituent elements
of the task. An alternative approach that has
recently been
growing in usage has emphasized the interrelations of
age-related effects on different variables. Because the
focus in this approach is at a broader level than individual
variables, and is concerned with determining the extent
to which age-related influences on the target variable
are independent of the effects on other variables, it
can be called the macro perspective. Examples of research
from both perspectives are described in this talk, and
a proposal is offered for how future research could combine
the analytical aspects of the micro perspective and the
integrative aspects of the macro perspective.
