Cognitive Development and the Ageing Process

Patrick Rabbitt was a member of scientific staff at the MRC Applied Psychology unit at the University of Cambridge, UK, from 1962 to 1967; worked for the University of Oxford, UK, as a lecturer in psychology (1968-1982); the University of Durham, UK, as Professor of Psychology and head of department (1982-1983); and the University of Manchester, UK, as the Research Chair in Gerontology and Cognitive Psychology and Director of the Age and Cognitive Performance Research Centre (1983-2004). He is currently Associated Researcher at the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK.

Part 1: Information Processing Theory: a Mid-20th Century Revolution in Models in Human Experimental Psychology and Discovery of its Limitations 1. Rabbitt, P.M. A (1964). Age and times for choice between signals and between responses. Journal of Gerontology 19, 307-31 2. Rabbitt, P.M.A (1965). An age – decrement in the ability to ignore irrelevant information. J of Gerontology, 20, 233-238 3. Rabbitt, P.M.A. Repetition effects and signal classification strategies in serial choice-response tasks. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 20, 232-240 4. Rabbitt, P. M. and Vyas , S.M. (1979). Memory and data-driven control of selective attention in continuous tasks Canadian Journal of Psychology, 33, 71-87-93 5. Rabbitt, P., Osman, P., Moore, B., and Stollery, B. (2001). There are stable individual differences in performance variability both from moment to moment and from day-to-day. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 54, 981-1003 Part 2: Functional Dynamics of Decisions. Error Correction and Control of Speed and Accuracy 6. Rabbitt, P. and Vyas, S.M. (1968). Three kinds of error-signalling responses in a serial choice task 7. Rabbitt, P. and Vyas, S.M. (1981). Processing a display even after you make a response to it. How perceptual errors can be corrected. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 33, 223-239 Part 3: "Speed" as an Explanatory Construct for Age-Related Changes in Mental Abilities 8. Rabbitt, P., Scott, M., Thacker, N., Lowe, C., Jackson, A., Horan, M. and Pendelton N., (2006). Losses in gross brain volume and cerebral blood flow account for age-related differences in speed but not in fluid intelligence. Neuropsychology, 20, 549-557 9. Rabbitt, P., Mogape, O., Scott, M., Thacker, N., Lowe, C., Horan,M., Pendelton,N., Jackson, A. and Lunn, D. (2007). Effects of global atrophy, white matter lesions, and cerebral blood flow on age-related changes in speed, memory, intelligence, vocabulary, and frontal function. Neuropsychology, 21, 684-695 Part 4: Calendar Age, Biological Age and the Interpretations of Biomarkers for Ageing 10. Rabbitt, P., Scott, M., Thacker, N., Lowe, C., Horan, M., Pendelton, N. Hutchinson, M., and Jackson, A. (2006). Balance marks cognitive changes in old age because it reflects global brain atrophy and cerebral blood flow. Neuropsychologia, 44,1978-1863 11. Rabbitt, P., Ibrahim, S., Lunn, M., Scott, M.,Thacker, N., Hutchinson, C., Horan, M., Pendelton, N. & Jackson, A. (2008). Age-associated losses of brain volume predict longitudinal cognitive declines over 8 to 20 years. Neuropsychology, 22, 3-9.11 12. Rabbitt, P. (1993). Does it all go together when it goes? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 36, 385-434 13. Rabbitt, P. , McInnes, L., Diggle, P. Holland, F et al. ( 2004) The University of Manchester Longitudinal Study of Cognition in normal healthy old age, 1983 to 2003. Age, Neuropsychology and Cognition, 11, 243-279 14. Rabbitt, P. Lunn, M. and Wong, D. (2005). Neglect of dropout underestimates effects of death in longitudinal studies. Journal of Gerontology; B. 60, 106-109 15. Rabbitt, P., Lunn, M. and Wong, D. (2008). Death, dropout and longitudinal measurements of cognitive changes in old age. Journals of Gerontology, B, 63, 271-278 16. Rabbitt, P., Lunn, M., Pendelton, N., and Yardegafar, G. (2011). Terminal pathologies affect rates of decline to different extents and age accelerates the effects of terminal pathology on cognitive decline. Journals of Gerontology, B. 66, 325-334