ABSTRACT
Introduction Many individuals experience declines in their ability to function effectively and independently with advancing age. In particular, sensory, perceptual, and cognitive functions may deteriorate in later life for some individuals, and it is widely believed that declines in these functions contribute to a corresponding decline in the ability to perform everyday activities. While much is now known about cognitive and sensory aging, less is known about the functional consequences, as well as the underlying reasons for declining abilities on everyday tasks. Furthermore, research aimed at the development of interventions to prevent, delay, or reverse disabilities that can affect older adults is relatively recent. With current trends toward increased longevity in the population, the potential for maintaining functional abilities into older age is of particular importance. Enhancement of basic sensory and cognitive functions into older age may help individuals sustain their personal autonomy by prolonging their abilities to perform instrumental activities of daily living. Furthermore, the high degree of interindividual variation in function among older adults, along with varying degrees of intraindividual plasticity in function, points to the influence of environment and life history factors in this area. It also suggests that these functions are subject to some degree of control. This chapter will discuss the importance of processing speed in the performance of everyday activities, and the development of interventions geared toward improving speed of processing and the everyday activities that rely on this ability. While the focus of this chapter is on aging, it is hoped that the issues, concepts, and techniq ues discussed can be viewed more broadly to potentially apply to clinical populations where deficits in information processing speed significantly affect everyday life activities. Many of these clinical populations are described in detail in other chapters in this book.
