Cognitive Aging and Sensory Changes Quiz

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Questions and Answers

At what age does significant change in processing speed typically occur according to recent studies?

After age 60.

What role does inhibition play in cognitive functioning?

It helps to suppress or ignore irrelevant thoughts and information.

What is the primary focus of task switching in cognitive studies?

To measure inhibition and mental flexibility.

How is fluid intelligence defined?

As the manipulation of information in real-time. Signup and view all the answers

What does the term 'attentional senescence' refer to?

The decline in attention capacity as people age. Signup and view all the answers

What is selective attention and give an example?

It is the process of focusing on specific information while ignoring other stimuli, such as attending to a conversation at a noisy party. Signup and view all the answers

What is the 'Cocktail Party Effect'?

It's the ability to focus on a single conversation in a noisy environment while filtering out background noise. Signup and view all the answers

What are the main types of attention mentioned in the context of cognition?

Selective attention, focused attention, sustained attention, divided attention, and automatic processing. Signup and view all the answers

What are some of the significant sensory changes that occur in ageing related to vision?

Significant changes include reduced visual acuity, long-sightedness (presbyopia), and an age-related increase in eye conditions such as macular degeneration and cataracts. Signup and view all the answers

How does processing speed generally change as individuals age?

Processing speed tends to reduce in a linear manner as individuals age, impacting their ability to react to stimuli. Signup and view all the answers

What is presbycusis and how does it affect older adults?

Presbycusis, or 'old man's hearing', is a condition characterized by a decrease in the perception of higher frequency tones and reduced speech discrimination in older adults. Signup and view all the answers

What effect does sensory deprivation have on cognitive function in older adults?

Sensory deprivation can lead to poor perception and reduced innervation of the brain via sensory information, ultimately resulting in negative cognitive consequences. Signup and view all the answers

Describe two changes to hearing that occur as people age.

Two changes include the loss of elasticity in the ear canal and atrophy of inner ear cells, leading to difficulties in hearing. Signup and view all the answers

What role does inhibition play in cognitive ageing?

Inhibition refers to the ability to suppress irrelevant information, which is crucial for maintaining focus and cognitive function as one ages. Signup and view all the answers

What percentage of adults over the age of 71 suffer from visual impairment, according to recent findings?

Approximately 28% of adults aged over 71 experience visual impairment. Signup and view all the answers

What physical changes occur in the ear as people age?

Physical changes include stiffening of the tympanic membrane and degeneration of stereocilia in the inner ear. Signup and view all the answers

What type of search task did older adults perform poorly on, but showed no difference on a domain relevant task?

Older adults performed poorly on the standard lab test. Signup and view all the answers

According to Plude & Doussard-Roosevelt (1989), what reliable age differences were observed?

Reliable age differences were found on conjunctive search tasks. Signup and view all the answers

How does sustained attention change with age according to Vallesi et al. (2021)?

Older adults are less efficient but more accurate than young adults. Signup and view all the answers

What two factors influence focused attention in older adults?

Interest and motivation influence focused attention in older adults. Signup and view all the answers

What does William James (1890/1950) imply about voluntary attention?

He implies that sustained voluntary attention can only last a few seconds at a time. Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary difference between single feature search and conjunction search?

Single feature search targets one attribute, while conjunction search targets multiple attributes. Signup and view all the answers

What task requires attention switching according to the interactive tasks described?

Interleaving numbers with letters (e.g., 1-A, 2-B) requires attention switching. Signup and view all the answers

What was the outcome of older women performing a visual search task focused on bacterial morphology?

There was no difference in performance for the domain relevant task. Signup and view all the answers

How does task complexity affect the performance of older adults in divided attention tasks?

Older adults exhibit a relative decline in performance as task complexity increases, particularly in multimodal and multitasking scenarios. Signup and view all the answers

What is the difference between divided attention and switching attention?

Divided attention refers to focusing on multiple tasks simultaneously, while switching attention involves alternating focus between tasks. Signup and view all the answers

What role does automaticity play in skill acquisition?

Automaticity allows tasks to be performed with minimal conscious attention, enhancing efficiency and requiring less cognitive resources. Signup and view all the answers

How do controlled and automatic processing differ regarding mental effort and speed?

Controlled processing requires conscious effort and is relatively slow, whereas automatic processing is fast and often occurs without conscious awareness. Signup and view all the answers

Why might older adults prefer top-down, controlled attention?

Older adults may favor top-down control to compensate for decreased bottom-up sensory input, which helps them maintain focus despite challenges. Signup and view all the answers

What factors affect the acquisition of new automatic processing skills in older adults?

The acquisition of new automatic processing skills in older adults depends largely on the specific domain and the extent of previous experience. Signup and view all the answers

What is a mixing cost in divided attention tasks, as evidenced by Schils et al. (2024)?

A mixing cost refers to a decrease in performance when the modality of response varies between trials, despite no specific switch cost for age. Signup and view all the answers

In what ways are tasks requiring executive control sensitive to aging?

Tasks requiring a high degree of executive control are more impacted by aging, leading to greater challenges for older adults in task management. Signup and view all the answers

What does semantic congruency indicate in relation to episodic memory for older adults?

Semantic congruency supports episodic memory, allowing older adults to remember realistic information more effectively. Signup and view all the answers

How did older adults perform in Castel's (2005) study regarding realistic versus unrealistic prices?

Older adults showed a deficit in memory for unrealistic prices but not for realistic ones. Signup and view all the answers

What effect does cognitive variability have on older adults compared to younger adults?

Cognitive variability in older adults is higher than in younger adults, showing more inconsistency and diversity in cognitive abilities. Signup and view all the answers

In terms of attention, how do older adults compare to younger adults, particularly on complex tasks?

Older adults generally perform poorer than younger adults on measures of selective and divided attention, especially in complex tasks. Signup and view all the answers

What is the relationship between cognitive aging and basic processing capabilities?

Cognitive aging is associated with a decline in sensory function and basic processing, affecting higher cognitive abilities. Signup and view all the answers

What anatomical regions are implicated in explicit memory according to neuroimaging findings?

The hippocampus and frontal lobes are crucial for explicit memory functions. Signup and view all the answers

What age-related changes occur in the brain that affect memory performance?

Age-related changes primarily affect the frontal lobes, leading to declines in memory performance. Signup and view all the answers

What does research suggest about the nature of cognitive aging?

Cognitive aging is a complex and individual process, with varying patterns of impairment across different cognitive domains. Signup and view all the answers

What is the difference between the primacy and recency portions of memory in older adults?

Older adults show deficits in primacy memory but not in recency memory. Signup and view all the answers

How does working memory differ from short-term memory?

Working memory involves actively processing information, whereas short-term memory is relatively passive storage. Signup and view all the answers

What findings did Hester et al. (2014) report regarding digit span in older adults?

Hester et al. found that digit span, both forwards and backwards, declines in older adults to the same extent. Signup and view all the answers

What effect does age have on working memory tasks that require manipulation?

Older adults perform more poorly on working memory tasks that require greater manipulation compared to younger adults. Signup and view all the answers

What did Zuber et al. (2019) discover about older adults in span tasks?

Zuber et al. found that older adults performed worse on reading span and counting span tasks compared to younger adults. Signup and view all the answers

What age-related impairment is observed in long-term memory according to Nyberg et al. (1996)?

Nyberg et al. identified age-related impairments in episodic and semantic memory, but not in priming. Signup and view all the answers

How do biological and demographic factors influence age-related impairments in semantic memory?

The difference in semantic memory impairments disappeared when controlling for biological and demographic factors. Signup and view all the answers

What relationship exists between age effects and processing speed according to Salthouse & Babcock (1991)?

Salthouse & Babcock found that age effects on span tasks were negatively correlated with processing speed. Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Cognitive Ageing Lecture 3

Lecture date: October 16, 2024
Course: Psychology of Ageing and Dementia (PSYC5919)
Lecturer: Dr Ali Mair

Overview of Today's Lecture

Part One: General overview of sensory and cognitive ageing
Part Two: Focus on attentional senescence, memory senescence, and methods used for measuring cognition in ageing.

Interrelated Systems

Sensory Function: Accuracy of incoming information from the external environment.
Intelligence: Measure of an individual's ability to acquire knowledge and skills and apply them.
Processing Speed: How fast one reacts to a stimulus; correlated with speed of transmission through the CNS and PNS.
Inhibition: Ability to suppress irrelevant information.

Sensory Changes in Ageing

Changes to the eye

Corneal flattening
Lens thickens; elasticity and transparency reduced
Loss of cones
Pupils less responsive
Retina wrinkles; less efficient

Changes to vision

Reduced visual acuity, long-sightedness (presbyopia)
Reduction in peripheral vision, less ability to discriminate colours.
Visual impairment in approximately 28% of adults aged >71 (Killeen et al., 2023).
Age-related increase in eye conditions/diseases: macular degeneration (damage to the retina), cataracts (lens opacity), glaucoma (damage to optic nerve).

Changes to the ear

Loss of elasticity in ear canal (can lead to collapse);
Stiffening of tympanic membrane, calcification of joints between ossicles
Atrophy of inner ear cells; degeneration of stereocilia

Changes to hearing

Difficulty hearing reported in 25% of 65-74 year olds, and 50% of those over 75.
Only 8% of older adults use a hearing aid.
Presbycusis (“old man's hearing”): decrease in perception of higher frequency tones and decrease in speech discrimination abilities.
Also reductions in taste, smell, and touch.

Sensory Deprivation Hypothesis

Poor sensory input results in poor perception.
Reduced innervation of the brain via sensory information = atrophy.
Ultimately leads to negative cognitive consequences.

Processing Speed

A widely held notion is that processing speed reduces linearly with age.
However, a study of 1 million people (von Krause et al., 2022) suggests that a significant change in processing speed doesn't happen until after the age of 60.

Inhibition/Mental Flexibility

Essential for filtering out irrelevant information; important role in cognition.
Limited capacity for attention is impacted by environmental complexity.
Task switching is a means to assess inhibition and mental flexibility; Reimer (2005) studied task switching in individuals (10-66 years of age).

Intelligence Changes with Age

Fluid intelligence: Manipulation of information "online".
Crystallized intelligence: Acquired knowledge.

Part Two: Attentional Senescence

Attention is the taking of possession of the mind to vividly focus on something, and is one of the major functions of attention. Focalization and concentration of one's consciousness is essential. (Wm. James 1890/1950).
Important aspects of attention include: Selective, Focused, Sustained (vigilance), Divided, and Automatic Processing.

Selective Attention

One major function of attention is to select certain information for processing, known as the "Cocktail Party Effect," where one can attend a conversation even with background noise.
Visual search tasks are used to explore the effect.
Age differences are noted in conjunctive search (Plude & Doussard-Roosevelt, 1989), but not in feature searches (Humphery & Kramer, 1997). Older adults showed performance differences on complex tasks (visual search) but not simpler ones. Young versus middle-aged women (40-68) were tested on two types of visual search tasks, and one domain relevant to experience.

Focused Attention

Relatively unaffected by age and even in Alzheimer's disease (but influenced by interest, motivation, fatigue).
Also influenced by perceptual factors (Zeef et al., 1996).

Sustained Attention

Ability to maintain focus over a period of time.
Response to rare events within large numbers of "do nothing" trials or responses in the same way.
Older adults are less efficient but have higher accuracy in comparison to younger adults (Vallesi et al., 2021).

Interactive Task One

Tasks: Count from 1-26, Recite the alphabet, Interleave numbers 1-26 with letters A-Z

Switching/Divided Attention

Attention switching involves rapidly shifting attention between tasks, shown as a general slowing in older adults.
Divided attention involves attending to multiple tasks, processes, or information sources simultaneously. Multiple modalities can be used to assess the ability.
There is a decrease in performance for older adults with increasing task complexity.
But the specific age related switch is not apparent (Schils et al, 2024).

Automatic Processing

Habit diminishes the awareness of conscious attention.
Skill acquisition involves automating task components so conscious attention is not required (e.g. driving, walking); increased efficiency.

Automatic versus Controlled Processing

Older adults may rely more on top-down, controlled attention processes compared to younger adults (but is not always the case)
Tasks requiring a high degree of executive control more sensitive to age.
Automatic processes acquired early in life tend to remain intact, while new acquisitions are domain dependent.

Part Two: Memory in Senescence

Measuring memory in the lab can be done by assessing encoding, retention, and retrieval.
There are different types of memory like STM, LTM, etc.
Older adults show deficits in primary memory (primacy), but not recency.
Difficulties with both primary and working memory are more present with more complex tasks.
In many tasks, older adults perform more poorly when the task requires more active processing.

Effects of Age on WM and LTM

Generally, more "manipulation" required in a task, the larger the age effect.
Older adults perform less well in reading and counting tasks (Zuber et al., 2019); series of span tasks, like computation or listening tasks; performance is negatively correlated with age in many tasks.
But the negative correlations are mitigated if the “processing speed” is factored out (Salthouse & Babcock).
Age-related impairment is present in episodic and semantic memory; however, this difference is not present in more basic memory tasks(Nyberg et al, 1996).
There are losses in specificity in autobiographical memory and in some instances, environmentally relevant memory, or cognitive support, helps memory performance for older adults (Craik, 2022. et al).

Conceptual Frameworks/Systems/Structures

Memory & Processing Speed

Processing speed is not, in itself, an executive function but can influence executive function like attention, planning, and work organization.
Slow processing speed impacts working memory and affects flexible thinking abilities.
Speed-related deficits can be overcome at slower test rates (Bäckman, 1986; Waugh & Barr 1989).

Experience Effects in Memory, and Cognitive Variability

Significant differences in memory and experience can be demonstrated in several groups (though many factors have impacted results).
Older adults perform similarly to younger adults in more realistic memory tasks, but not in unreal tasks (like unrealistic grocery prices), unrelated associations, or some non-famous names.
Wider variability in cognitive tasks seen in older adult groups.

Summary

Age is associated with changes in sensory processing, and basic processing speed.
Older adults show uneven cognitive impairments across various domains.
Age-related impairments are more prevalent in more selective and divided attention tasks, and the ability to execute complex tasks (and may vary drastically).
Age-related deficits are often found in working memory and episodic memory tasks, though in some instances, memory deficits are not evident (or are overcome with cognitive support).

Next Week: Looking at the Brain for Answers

Anatomical dissociations (role of hippocampus and frontal lobes in explicit/implicit memory).
Empirical evidence (neuroimaging suggesting increased hippocampal/frontal activation during explicit memory tests).
Age-related changes in the brain, especially the frontal lobes.

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Description

Explore the intriguing facets of cognitive aging through this quiz, which delves into processing speed, inhibition, and various types of attention. You will also learn about the sensory changes that accompany aging, specifically in vision and hearing. Test your knowledge on how these factors interact and affect cognitive functions in older adults.