A study selectively examined factors that have contributed to observed limitations of congruent data describing normative, developmental change in adult cognition. A preteritive design was used first to examine limiting factors, and secondly, to examine research strategies that could be used to provide necessary reforms of the data. Three factors were identified as being closely associated with the limited attention given by developmental neuropsychologists to normative cognitive change in adults. These were the newness and initial emphasis of the discipline, lack of interest in the topic, and preservation of the adult staticity paradigm. Of the three limitational factors, two--novelty and emphasis of neuropsychology as a discipline and level of interest--seemed to be self-correcting. The lingering issue of developmental staticity was the most enduring limiting factor identified. To combat the bias that the staticity versus change issue contributed to the literature, an amalgamated research design was recommended. Using such a design, a researcher could, from weight of the evidence arguments, extract and organize relational data statistics, using nomological analysis procedures. Subsequently, those relationships could be empirically tested via meta-analysis techniques to separate artifact effects from true independent and moderator variable effects. (YLB)