How shared are age-related influences on cognitive and noncognitive variables?

Several theories have suggested that age-related declines in cognitive processing are due to a pervasive unitary mechanism, such as a decline in processing speed. Structural equation model tests have shown some support for such common factor explanations. These results, however, may not be as conclusive as previously claimed. A further analysis of 4 cross-sectional data sets described in Salthouse, Hambrick, and McGuthry (1998) and Salthouse and Czaja (2000) found that although the best fitting model included a common factor in 3 of the data sets, additional direct age paths were significant, indicating the presence of specific age effects. For the remaining data set, a factor-specific model fit at least as well as the best fitting common factor model. Three simulated data sets with known structure were then tested with a sequence of structural equation models. Common factor models could not always be falsified--even when they were false. In contrast, factor-specific models were more easily falsified when the true model included a unitary common factor. These results suggest that it is premature to conclude that all age-related cognitive declines are due to a single mechanism. Common factor models may be particularly difficult to falsify with current analytic procedures.