Abstract: The mechanisms of primary menatal abilities aging are one of focus of cognitive aging research. Cross-sectional and longitudinal researches showed that the decline of information processing resources such as sensory functions, processing speed and working memory led to PMA aging. However, there is still an open question concerning the cognitive mechanisms of PMA aging due to correlational design cannot attain data from causal inference. Experimental and intervention design are needed in this project. To explore the changes of age differences of PMA, sensory functions will be manipulated and processing speed and working memory will be trained. The results of this project will provide further evidence to cognitive aging theories.

Key words: primary mental abilities, sensory function, processing speed, working memory, cognitive aging