Final answer:
Older adults are less effective at engaging in cognitive control, which is part of executive function, due to a natural decline in fluid intelligence as they age. Crystallized intelligence, however, may remain stable or even improve. Engaging in mental and physical activities, maintaining a healthy diet, and cognitive rehabilitation can mitigate cognitive decline.
Step-by-step explanation:
In terms of executive function, older adults are less effective at engaging in cognitive control than when they were younger. Research indicates that this decline in cognitive abilities, specifically fluid intelligence such as information processing abilities, reasoning, and memory, is a natural part of aging. Fluid intelligence tends to decline in late adulthood, leading to slower cognitive processes, while crystallized intelligence, which consists of knowledge and skills accumulated over a lifetime, remains stable or may even improve into the mid-50s.
The decline in executive function among older adults can be attributed to neurodegeneration, as evidenced by Forssmann and colleagues (2011), who found that older adults made more errors and were slower in tasks due to degeneration of corticostriatal connections. Moreover, similar spatial representations in cognitive abilities were found between very young children and those over 80 years according to Ruggiero et al. (2016), which is again linked to neurological changes over the lifespan.
To mitigate cognitive decline, older adults can engage in mentally and physically stimulating activities, which have been found to decrease the incidence of mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Lifestyle factors such as diet and avoiding environmental toxins also play a role in preserving cognitive function. Cognitive rehabilitation, including the use of virtual reality, has also been suggested as a method to offset mild cognitive impairments in older adults.