Ulman Lindenberger
In this lecture, I will report recent work on individual differences in adult cognitive development with two interrelated goals in mind: (a) to highlight key methodological issues in the study of lifespan change, and (b) to showcase individual differences in brain maintenance as a major determinant of individual differences in late-life cognition. Methodological considerations will include a reiteration of the critique of cross-sectional mediation as well as issues of statistical power and model misspecification in longitudinal research designs. Substantive considerations will focus on the covariance structure of cognitive change, and its implications for the theory of crystallized versus fluid intelligence.