A cognitive psychologist conducts a study to examine differences in cognitive functioning across stages of adulthood. He opts to
study one group of young adults ages 21-28. one group of middle-aged adults aged 41-48, and one group of older adults ages 61-
68. He finds that the young adult group outperforms both other groups on a variety of cognitive tasks and that the middle age
group outperforms the older group. He concludes that age relates to cognitive performance on these tasks.
Which of the following statements would be a valid criticism of this study's conclusion?

The statement that would be a valid criticism of the study's conclusion is;

B. The groups are different in more ways than their ages. Specifically, the young adult groups was born and raised more recently, and therefore under different conditions in the middle-aged and older adult groups.

We are told that the cognitive psychologist studied 3 groups namely;

Now, after studying the difference in congnitive function among the 3 age groups he came to a conclusion that since the second group outperformed the 3rd older group then age relates to cognitive performance on these tasks.

The missing options are;

A. Because this study was not an experiment, it cannot result in a casual inference

B. The groups are different in more ways than their ages. Specifically, the young adult groups was born and raised more recently, and therefore under different conditions in the middle-aged and older adult groups.

C. Because the study includes three groups, the correlational method is inappropriate

D. The design is inappropriate for the study of age. Only testing the same sample over time can reveal information about ages relation to other phenomena.

E. A conclusion should not be draw before the study is replicated

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A cognitive psychologist conducts a study to examine differences in cognitive functioning across stages of adulthood. He opts to  study one group of young adults ages 21-28. one group of middle-aged adults aged 41-48, and one group of older adults ages 61- 68- The psychologist finding that  that the middle age  group outperforms the older group is a valid criticism to the study's conclusion

Explanation:

A cognitive psychologist concludes that age relates to cognitive performance on these tasks.This statement means that as a person age's its ability to perform the cognitive task declines .In the study conducted between the various age group the cognitive psychologist where able to find that the people in their middle age (i.e. between 41-48) were able to perform the cognitive task is a better way than the people in the older group. and the younger group was able to perform the cognitive task much better than the middle and the old age group.

Now their is no need for the  comparison of the middle age and the old age people for performing the task because as er the conclusion the cognitive skills decline with the age.

So,the psychologist finding that  that the middle age  group outperforms the older group is a valid criticism to the study's conclusion