Recently, I testified as an expert witness in a case in which a company was proposing a mandatory retirement age of 70. A fundamental question was the functional capacity of older employees in occupations that impact the safety of others.
The spectrum of functional capacity at older ages was starkly and publicly displayed by Nancy Pelosi and Diane Feinstein. Pelosi left at the apex of her career, a commanding Speaker of the House. Feinstein died while a sitting Senator, despite being functionally incapable of performing her duties. A mandatory retirement age of 70 would have denied Pelosi the opportunity to demonstrate her tremendous political mastery but enabled Feinstein to leave with grace.
While age is associated with a greater likelihood of debilitating chronic conditions as exemplified by Feinstein, Pelosi’s cognitive longevity is not rare. The New England Centenarian Study found that a significant subset of participants aged 100+ years and their offspring show no to very little decline in cognitive function over time. Other scientists have discovered that about 30 percent of older adults have “younger” brains than their chronological age.
I was an expert witness in this case because of work I had done as a researcher in the Stanford/VA Aviation Safety Lab, in which we conducted a longitudinal study of middle-aged and older pilots. The study was funded to address the cognitive component of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Age 60 Rule—that at age 60, cognitive decline would be severe enough to be a safety hazard. Over many years, pilots came to our lab, flew in our flight simulator, and completed a lengthy battery of cognitive tests on an annual basis. We found that there is a gradual decline in flight performance with age, but that cognitive ability explains much of that age-related decline: among pilots who had relatively good processing speed (i.e., how fast your brain works), age only negligibly impacted their ability to maintain flight performance over several years. Working memory explained 76 percent of the age-related difference in accurately executing Air Traffic Control commands.
Finally, early work revealed that cognitive test performance explained 45 percent of the variability in flight simulator performance, whereas age explained 20 percent. In short, our work indicates that chronological age is an inadequate predictor of one’s functional capacity.
If chronological age is insufficient, is there a way to measure functional age and predict the circumstances in which one’s functional age could be an occupational concern? I believe we now have the tools and capabilities to address this question. First, we now have more nuanced measurements of age—telomere length can inform us of someone’s biological age, and neuroimaging techniques can show brain age. Additionally, artificial intelligence (AI) in combination with medical data could help provide better medical risk screening procedures. Finally, training simulations of key occupational procedures can provide objective and quantitative measurement of performance.
While our work focused on aviation, other industries also are grappling with this issue—the medical community is concerned about aging surgeons with shaky hands, the finance community is concerned about financial advisors with undiagnosed cognitive impairment, and the American public is unhappy about seeing incapacitated elected officials stubbornly remain in their posts.
The Age 60 Rule was crafted in 1959, when life expectancy was 69 years and before the emergence of research in adult cognitive aging. It took almost 50 years for the mandatory retirement age to be increased to 65, by which time life expectancy was 78 years. As life expectancy increases and scientific understanding and technology continue to advance, mandatory retirement age requirements seem more and more outdated. Surely, in 2024, we can do better?
References
Kennedy, Q., Taylor, J. L., Reade, G., & Yesavage, J. (2010). Age and expertise effects in aviation decision making and flight control in a flight simulator. Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, 81, 489–497.
Taylor, J. L., Kennedy, Q., Noda, A., & Yesavage. J. A. (2007). Pilot age and expertise predict flight simulator performance: A three-year longitudinal study. Neurology, 68(9), 648–654.
Yesavage, J.A., Jo, B., Adamson, M. M., Kennedy, Q., Noda, A., Hernandez, B., Zeitzer, J. M., Friedman, L., Murphy G. M. Jr, Taylor, J. L. (2011). Cognitive processing speed predicts longitudinal aviator performance. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B Psychological Sciences, 66(4)443–453.
James Langton. How are firms dealing with cognitive decline in advisor ranks? Investment Executive. July 21, 2020.
Lisa Lerer and Reid J. Epstein. Reluctant to Retire, Leaders Raise a Tough Question: How Old Is Too Old? New York Times. July 29, 2023.
Is Chronological Age a Meaningless Number?
16
0
30.01.2024
Recently, I testified as an expert witness in a case in which a company was proposing a mandatory retirement age of 70. A fundamental question was the functional capacity of older employees in occupations that impact the safety of others.
The spectrum of functional capacity at older ages was starkly and publicly displayed by Nancy Pelosi and Diane Feinstein. Pelosi left at the apex of her career, a commanding Speaker of the House. Feinstein died while a sitting Senator, despite being functionally incapable of performing her duties. A mandatory retirement age of 70 would have denied Pelosi the opportunity to demonstrate her tremendous political mastery but enabled Feinstein to leave with grace.
While age is associated with a greater likelihood of debilitating chronic conditions as exemplified by Feinstein, Pelosi’s cognitive longevity is not rare. The New England Centenarian Study found that a significant subset of participants aged 100 years and their offspring show no to very little decline in cognitive function over time. Other scientists have discovered that about 30 percent of older adults have “younger” brains than their chronological age.
I was an expert witness in this case........
© Psychology Today
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Tarik Cyril Amar
Rami G Khouri
Dr Ramzy Baroud
Mort Laitner
Bradley Blankenship
