A research strategy for investigating group differences in a cognitive construct: Application to ageing and executive processes

A strategy involving five distinct phases is proposed as a means of obtaini ng the most informative evidence about group differences in a particular as pect of cognitive functioning. Perhaps because the phases require different types of analytical methods, most prior research has focused on only a few of the proposed phases. This is unfortunate because each phase provides va luable information about the nature of the relevant construct, and its role in group differences in cognition. The strategy is illustrated with resear ch on adult age differences in executive processes.