Cognitive performance across the life course of Bolivian forager-farmers with limited schooling.

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, whereas 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

SUBMITTER: Gurven M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5191915 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature