Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2017
Abstract
Cognitive performance is characterized by at least two distinct life course trajectories. Many cognitive abilities (e.g. “effortful processing” abilities including fluid reasoning, and processing speed) improve throughout early adolescence and start declining in early adulthood, while other abilities (e.g. “crystallized” abilities like vocabulary breadth) improve throughout adult life, remaining robust even at late ages. Although schooling may impact performance and cognitive “reserve”, it has been argued that these age patterns of cognitive performance are human universals. Here we examine age patterns of cognitive performance among Tsimane forager-horticulturalists of Bolivia, and test whether schooling is related to differences in cognitive performance over the life course to assess models of active vs. passive cognitive reserve. We used a battery of eight tasks to assess a range of latent cognitive traits reflecting attention, processing speed, verbal declarative memory and semantic fluency (n=919 individuals, 49.9% female). Tsimane cognitive abilities show similar age-related differences as observed in industrialized populations: higher throughout adolescence and only slightly lower in later adulthood for semantic fluency, but substantially lower performance beginning in early adulthood for all other abilities. Schooling is associated with greater cognitive abilities at all ages controlling for sex, but has no attenuating effect on cognitive performance in late adulthood, consistent with models of passive cognitive reserve. We interpret the minimal attenuation of semantic fluency late in life in light of evolutionary theories of post-reproductive lifespan, which emphasize indirect fitness contributions of older adults through the transfer of information, labor and food to descendant kin.
Recommended Citation
Gurven, M., Fuerstenberg, E., Trumble, B., Stieglitz, J., Beheim, B., Davis, H., & Kaplan, H. (2017). Cognitive performance across the life course of Bolivian forager-farmers with limited schooling. Developmental Psychology, 53(1), 160-176. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000175
Peer Reviewed
1
Copyright
American Psychological Association
Included in
Biological and Physical Anthropology Commons, Economic Theory Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, Latin American Studies Commons, Other Anthropology Commons, Other Economics Commons, Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons
Comments
This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Developmental Psychology, volume 53, issue 1, in 2017 following peer review. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available online at https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000175
This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.