Lecture 3 - Cognitive Ageing PDF

LECTURE 3 – COGNITIVE AGEING Dr Ali Mair 16TH OCTOBER 2024 PSYC5919 | THE PSYCHOLOGY OF AGEING AND DEMENTIA OVERVIEW OF TODAY’S LECTURE PART ONE: General overview of sensory and cognitive ageing PART TWO: Focus on attentional senescence Focus on memory senescence Methods used f...

LECTURE 3 – COGNITIVE AGEING Dr Ali Mair 16TH OCTOBER 2024 PSYC5919 | THE PSYCHOLOGY OF AGEING AND DEMENTIA OVERVIEW OF TODAY’S LECTURE PART ONE: General overview of sensory and cognitive ageing PART TWO: Focus on attentional senescence Focus on memory senescence Methods used for measuring cognition in ageing  INTERRELATED SYSTEMS SENSORY FUNCTION: Accuracy of incoming information from our external environment. INTELLIGENCE: A measure of an individual’s ability to acquire knowledge and skills and apply them. PROCESSING SPEED: Essentially how fast you can react to a stimulus; correlated with speed of transmission through CNS and PNS. INHIBITION: Ability to suppress irrelevant information SENSORY CHANGES IN AGEING Changes to the eye Corneal flattening Lens thickens - elasticity & transparency reduced Loss of cones Pupils less responsive Retina wrinkles – less efficient SENSORY CHANGES IN AGEING Changes to vision: Reduced visual acuity, long-sightedness (presbyopia), reduction in peripheral vision, less able to discriminate colours Visual impairment in ~28% of adults aged >71 (Killeen et al., 2023) Age-related increase in eye conditions/diseases: macular degeneration (damage to retina), cataracts (lens opacity), glaucoma (damage to optic nerve) Macular degeneration Cataracts Glaucoma SENSORY CHANGES IN AGEING Changes to the ear: Loss of elasticity in ear canal, sometimes leading to collapse Stiffening of tympanic membrane, calcification of joints between ossicles Atrophy of inner ear cells, degeneration of stereocilia SENSORY CHANGES IN AGEING Changes to hearing Difficulty hearing reported in: 25% of 65–74 year olds 50% of people >75 Only 8% of older adults use a hearing aid Presbycusis (“old man’s hearing”): decrease in perception of higher frequency tones and decrease speech discrimination. Also reductions in taste, smell, & 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 Time taken to initiate and perform a response to a target. There is a widely held notion that this mental processing speed reduces, probably in a linear way, as we age. …but von Krause et al. (2022) study of 1 million people suggests that sig change happens only after 60. Processing speed in von Krause, M., Radev, S.T. & Voss, A. (2022). many tasks at age Mental speed is high until age 60 as revealed 70 is predicted by by analysis of over a million participants. Nat  INHIBITION/MENTAL FLEXIBILITY Ability to supress or ignore irrelevant thoughts and or information Vital role in cognition, given: Limited capacity of attention Environmental complexity Task switching is one way to measure inhibition and mental flexibility Reimers (2005) looked at task switching “cost” from 10 – 66 years old  INTELLIGENCE CHANGES WITH AGE FLUID INTELLIGENCE – Manipulation of information “online” CRYSTALLIZED INTELLIGENCE – Acquired knowledge. Figure from Park & Bischof (2013)  TASK: Please judge the pleasantness of each of the following words, using a scale from 1 to 5. EXTREMELY UNPLEASANT = 1 EXTREMELY PLEASANT = 5 ASSASSIN MYSTERY PENDULUM TWILIGHT  PART TWO: A) ATTENTIONAL SENESCENCE  Attention is the taking possession of the mind, in clear and vivid form, of one of what seems several simultaneously possible objects or trains of thought. Focalization [and] concentration of consciousness are of its essence. WILLIAM JAMES (1890/1950) In our everyday lives, these factors form the basis for many of the conscious cognitive operations we perform.  TYPOLOGY OF ATTENTION SELECTIVE ATTENTION FOCUSED ATTENTION SUSTAINED ATTENTION (VIGILANCE) DIVIDED ATTENTION AUTOMATIC PROCESSING  SELECTIVE ATTENTION One major function of attention is to select certain information for processing. The “Cocktail Party Effect”– how do you selectively attend to the conversation in which you are involved, while ignoring the background noise? The more similar the Visual search tasks often used in the lab target and distractors to explore this. = more difficult the task  AGE EFFECTS IN SELECTIVE ATTENTION L L L L L L T L L L L L T L T T Task: find the blue ‘T’ L L L L T T L L L L T L L L T L single feature = letter OR colour; conjunction = letter AND colour Reliable age differences on conjunctive search (Plude & Doussard-Roosevelt, 1989) But older adults not impaired on feature search (Humphrey & Kramer, 1997)  AGE EFFECTS IN SELECTIVE ATTENTION EFFECTS OF AGE ARE REDUCED BY EXPERIENCE Young vs middle-aged women (40 to 68 years) compared on two visual search tasks - standard ‘lab’ test vs. - “domain relevant task” looking at bacterial morphology Older women performed more poorly on the standard task, but there was no difference on the domain relevant task  FOCUSED ATTENTION Ability to focus on a target (i.e., after selection) – filtering out distracting info Relatively intact with age, and even in Alzheimer’s disease (but influenced by interest, motivation, fatigue) Also influenced by perceptual factors (Zeef et al., 1996) H H H H H HHHHH N N H N N NNHNN S S H S S SSHSS  SUSTAINED ATTENTION There is no such thing as voluntary attention sustained for more than a few seconds at a time….it is a repetition of successive efforts which bring back the topic to mind WILLIAM JAMES (1890/1950) Ability to maintain focus over a period of time E.g., respond to rare events within large number of “do nothing” trials OR respond in the same way on most trials, with a small number requiring different response Vallesi et al. (2021): Older adults less efficient but more accurate than young adults  INTERACTIVE TASK ONE In pairs, time how long it takes to complete the following three tasks: TASK 1: Count from 1 – 26 TASK 2: Recite the alphabet TASK 3: Interleave numbers with letters i.e. 1-A, 2-B etc….  SWITCHING / DIVIDED ATTENTION Attention switching - rapidly shift attentional focus from one task to another. General slowing in older adults Divided attention - attend to two or more tasks, processes or sources of information simultaneously. Multistream (within modality), multimodal (between modality), or multitasking (between tasks with different goals)  SWITCHING / DIVIDED ATTENTION DIVIDED ATTENTION: Relative performance of older adults declines with increasing task complexity (especially multimodal and multitasking) Schils et al. (2024) – Ps presented with bilateral visual & auditory stimuli, required to respond to location. No specific age-related switch cost (e.g., visual  auditory), but there was a mixing cost (i.e., when modality of response varied between trials) IMPORTANT QUESTION:  Do you divide or switch attention? e.g. reading the newspaper and listening to the radio.  Do you simultaneously “divide” your attention between the two tasks, or switch back and forth between the two?  AUTOMATIC PROCESSING “Habit diminishes the conscious attention with which acts are performed” (James, 1890/1950) An important part of skill acquisition is the ability to automatize task components such that they do not require conscious attention = increased efficiency. Can you think of any automatic processing skills AUTOMATIC VS CONTROLLED PROCESSING controlled automatic Conscious effort Habitual, often unconscious Relatively slow Fast parallel processing Mentally demanding Minimal processing effort Requires STM Not limited by STM Large degree of voluntary Little direct control control Requires extensive training/experience to develop AUTOMATIC VS CONTROLLED PROCESSING Controlled processing Older adults appear to favour top-down, controlled attention to a greater degree than young adults (e.g., Ford et al., 1995, 1997; Staub et al., 2015) – perhaps compensation for reduced bottom- up sensory input BUT tasks that require a high degree of executive control are more sensitive to ageing (Andrés et al., 2008) Automatic processing processes acquired young remain intact acquisition of new processes depend on domain Practically, this is very important for the maintenance of functioning into old age. PART TWO: B) MEMORY IN SENESCENCE  MEASURING MEMORY IN THE LAB Encodin Retentio Retrieval g n Participants areAn interval of time The participant then passes (normally presented with to-be- remembers the material seconds to minutes) remembered materials presented earlier while participants (e.g. words, objects, - Free recall faces) engage in some other - Cued recall activity - Recognition - Retention (articulatory Measurements include: Reaction Time, Accuracy (cautious suppression of floor/ceiling) Memory is today defined in psychology as the faculty of encoding, storing, and retrieving information (Squire,  MEMORY TYPES Short-term Primar Workin memory (seconds y g ) memor memor y y (minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years) Long-term memory “HO “THA Non-declarative Declarative W” T” Priming Procedural Episodic Semantic unconsci skills events facts ous Please complete each of the following word stems to form the first word that comes to mind and write it down: 1 FLAMINGO 1. _L_MI_G_ 2 TWILIGHT* 2. TW_ _I_ _T 3 THEOREM 3. _H_O_EM 4 ASSASSIN* 4. A_ _A_ IN 5 GONDOLA 5. G_ _DO_A 6 6. _E_D_L_M PENDULUM* 7. _P_TU_A 7. SPATULA 8. _YS_ _RY 8. MYSTERY*  STM VS LTM Serial position curves separate STM from LTM (e.g., Craik, 1968; Smith 1975). WORD 1 WORD 2 WORD 3 WORD 4 PRIMACY PORTION (LTM) -------------------------------------------------------------------- WORD 5 WORD 6 WORD 7 WORD 8 WORD 9 WORD 10 --------------------------------------------------------------------- WORD 11 RECENCY PORTION (STM) WORD 12 WORD 13 WORD 14 Older adults show deficits in primacy but not recency SHORT-TERM VS WORKING MEMORY Recency effect = primary memory, relatively passive storage Contrast with working memory = actively processing information “on-line” Older adults show impairments in both primary and working memory, but more so the more “active” the task forward digit span < backward span < computational span EFFECTS OF AGE STM Digit span – declines forwards and backward to the same extent (Hester et al. (2014) Serial position in STM – older adults perform more poorly than young adults, but the pattern of responding is similar (Korsnes & Magnussen, 1996).  EFFECTS OF AGE ON WM Generally, the more “manipulation” required, the larger the age effect Zuber et al. (2019): older adults performed more poorly on reading span & counting span task than young adults Salthouse & Babcock (1991): series of “span” tasks (computation span, listening span) performance negatively correlated with age… but when storage capacity and especially “processing speed” partialled out, age effects attenuated.  EFFECTS OF AGE ON LTM Nyberg et al. (1996). Age-related impairment in episodic & semantic memory, but not priming  Difference in semantic memory disappeared when controlling for biological & demographic factors (e.g. blood pressure, education) Lots of evidence for selective deficit in episodic memory in older adults (e.g., Korkki et al., 2020; Plancher et al., 2010; Smith, 1977 Moutoussamy et al., 2022) Loss of specificity in autobiographical memory (e.g., Levine et al., 2002) BUT – environmental support reduces/abolishes deficits (e.g., Craik, 2022; Froger et al., 2012; Park et al., 1986; Smith, 1977) CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORKS IN MEMORY SYSTEMS/ PROCESSING/ STRUCTURES RESOURCES Categorises “types” of memory, Focuses on processes e.g., episodic vs. semantic memory underlying memory, e.g., (how the info is processed),or perceptual speed (Salthouse, working memory vs. or long-term 1985), inhibition (Hasher & memory (how the info is stored). Zacks), etc. By breaking memory into its Work also examines how components, we gain insights into support affects age in what way and to what extent age differences in encoding and affects memory. retrieval processes e.g., environmental support – Craik (1986); cognitive support - Backman)  MEMORY & PROCESSING SPEED Processing speed isn't an executive skill, but it can affect executive function. Slow processing speed impacts working memory, flexible thinking, organization and planning, and attention skills. Mistaking slow processing speed for issues with executive function skills is common. Writin Eyes g Ears Speakin PROCESSING g SPEED Touch Doing Age-related deficits in memory can be eliminated if tests are administered at a slower rate (Bäckman, 1986; Waugh and Barr, 1989).  EXPERIENCE EFFECTS IN MEMORY Semantic congruency also supports episodic memory in older adults Castel (2005): older adults showed deficit in memory for unrealistic prices of grocery items, but not realistic prices Badham & Maylor (2015): Ps learned associations between famous names and non-famous faces; deficit in older adults for unrelated associations, but abolished when faces were “lookalikes” Brod and Shing (2022) https://doi.org/10.1111/mbe.12320  COGNITIVE VARIABILITY “Dispersion” of abilities across different cognitive domains “Diversity” of individual abilities across a group of individuals “Inconsistency” of abilities measured at different times All 3 higher in older adults than young adults (Hultsch et al., 2002).  SUMMARY Ageing is associated with a wide range of changes to sensory function and basic processing (e.g., speed) Older adults typically exhibit uneven patterns of impairment within and across cognitive domains Within attention, OAs generally poorer than YAs on measures of selective & divided attention – though only on more complex tasks Within memory, OAs generally poorer than YAs on measures of WM and episodic memory – effortful “active” processing  SUMMARY Cognitive ageing is a complex and highly individual process – to some extent, complex abilities depend on preservation of more basic capabilities Physical / Early Late perceptual processing processing capability Processing LTM (also Sensory speed, decision function inhibition, making etc) attention, WM  NEXT WEEK… LOOKING AT THE BRAIN FOR ANSWERS Anatomical dissociations - The role of the hippocampus and frontal lobes in explicit, but not implicit, memory Empirical evidence - Neuroimaging findings showing increased activation of hippocampal and frontal regions during explicit memory tests - Age-related changes to the brain, especially the frontal lobes FURTHER READING: Park DC, Festini SB. Theories of Memory and Aging: A Look at the Past and a Glimpse of the Future. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2017 Jan;72(1):82-90. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbw066. Epub 2016 Jun 2. PMID: 27257229; PMCID: PMC5156492. Glisky EL. Changes in Cognitive Function in Human Aging. In: Riddle DR, editor. Brain Aging: Models, Methods, and Mechanisms. Boca Raton (FL): CRC Press/Taylor & Francis; 2007. Chapter 1. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK3885/ von Krause M, Radev ST, Voss A. Mental speed is high until age 60 as revealed by analysis of over a million participants. Nat Hum Behav. 2022 May;6(5):700-708. doi: 10.1038/s41562-021-01282-7. Epub 2022 Feb 17. PMID: 35177809. Schils, L.A.P., Koch, I., Huang, PC. et al. Impact of aging on crossmodal attention switching. Psychological Research 88, 2149–2159 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-024-01992-3 Badham, S. (2024). The older population is more cognitively able than in the past and age-related deficits in cognition are diminishing over time. Developmental Review, 72. HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.1016/J.DR.2024.101124