There are three general categories of causes of the cognitive decline
associated with aging: disuse, disease, and aging per se. People tend
to use certain skills or abilities less with age and, thus, those skil
ls decline due to the disuse. Physical illnesses tend to increase with
age, which will tend to compromise cognitive functioning. Further, th
ere are actual neurobiological changes with age that will contribute t
o deterioration of cognitive abilities. Variability of performance bet
ween different individuals within an age group increases with age due
to each of these three major contributing factors to age decline. The
best defense against age-related cognitive deterioration is practice.
Practice tends to mitigate the effects of aging by not allowing disuse
to occur. In addition, practice can overcompensate for age effects by
building a larger reserve capacity to offset any real neurobiological
effects of age. Practice can also lead to compensatory strategies in
which alternative ways of maintaining performance levels are found.