Many but not all cognitive abilities decline during ageing. Some even improve due to lifelong experience. The critical capacities of attention and executive functions have been widely posited to decline. However, these capacities are composed of multiple components, so multifaceted ageing outcomes might be expected. Indeed, prior findings suggest that whereas certain attention/executive functions clearly decline, others do not, with hints that some might even improve. We tested ageing effects on the alerting, orienting and executive (inhibitory) networks posited by Posner and Petersen’s influential theory of attention, in a cross-sectional study of a large sample (N = 702) of participants aged 58–98. Linear and nonlinear analyses revealed that whereas the efficiency of the alerting network decreased with age, orienting and executive inhibitory efficiency increased, at least until the mid-to-late 70s. Sensitivity analyses indicated that the patterns were robust. The results suggest variability in age-related changes across attention/executive functions, with some declining while others improve.

许多但不是所有的认知能力在衰老过程中都会下降。有些人甚至由于终生的经验而有所改善。人们普遍认为注意力和执行功能的关键能力正在下降。然而，这些能力由多个组成部分组成，因此可能会出现多方面的老化结果。事实上，先前的研究结果表明，虽然某些注意力/执行功能明显下降，但其他的却没有，暗示有些甚至可能会有所改善。我们在一个大样本的横断面研究中测试了老化对 Posner 和 Petersen 的有影响力的注意力理论提出的警报、定向和执行（抑制）网络的影响（N = 702) 58-98 岁的参与者。线性和非线性分析表明，警报网络的效率随着年龄的增长而下降，定向和执行抑制效率增加，至少直到 70 年代中后期。敏感性分析表明这些模式是稳健的。结果表明，注意力/执行功能与年龄相关的变化存在差异，其中一些下降，而另一些则有所改善。