Cognition And Aging Chapter 7 Notes PDF

Chapter 7: Cognition and Aging Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Common Cause Hypothesis  Proposes that cognitive changes occur with age because of an overall weakening of the integrity of the brain and the nervous system.  Based on studies show...

Chapter 7: Cognition and Aging Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Common Cause Hypothesis  Proposes that cognitive changes occur with age because of an overall weakening of the integrity of the brain and the nervous system.  Based on studies showing a decline in cognitive abilities related to declines in other systems, such as motor and sensory functioning. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved.  Intelligence: Traditional Conceptualization  Crystallized: Knowledge accumulated and solidified across the life span, based on life experience.  Fluid: The ability to change, adapt, and learn within a novel experience. The ability to apply logic, solve problems, and identify patterns within a new experience. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Crystallized Intelligence  Remains stable over time and can even gradually improve throughout an individual’s 60s and 70s as more information is accumulated with age.  Older adults can even outperform younger adults in tasks involving crystallized intelligence. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Fluid Intelligence  Peaks in the 30s and then declines at an estimated rate of −0.02 standard deviation per year (Harada et al., 2013).  Older adults are challenged more in response to novel situations and in their ability to gather and organize new learning as compared to younger adults. Harada, C. N., Natelson Love, M. C., & Triebel, K. (2013). Normal cognitive aging. Clinics in Geriatric Medicine, 29(4), 737–752. doi:10.1016/j.cger.2013.07.002 Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Intelligence: Multiple Abilities  Initial inquiry into cognitive functioning focused primarily on evaluating cognition as a single construct, such as “intelligence” or general intellectual functioning (Spearman’s “g”).  As knowledge of the complexities of brain functioning has increased, the concept of a unitary construct to describe the totality of an individual’s functioning has fallen out of favor (Lezak et al., 2012). Lezak, M. D., Howieson, D. B., Bigler, E. D., & Tranel, D. (2012). Neuropsychological assessment (5th ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Key Areas of Cognition (DSM-5)  Complex attention: Sustained attention, divided attention, selective attention, processing speed  Executive function: Planning, decision making, responding to feedback, overriding habits/inhibition, mental flexibility  Learning and memory  Language: Expressive and receptive  (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, pp. 593–595) American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved.  Key Areas of Cognition (DSM-5) (cont’d)  Perceptual-motor: Visual perception, visuo-construction  Social cognition: Recognition of emotions, ability to consider other people’s mental state or experience  (American Psychiatric Association, 2013, pp. 593–595) Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Seattle Longitudinal Study  Has evaluated participants aged 22 to 70 every 7 years since 1956, with new participants recruited every year.  Study has expanded to include siblings of participants.  Found that there was no uniform pattern of change across all intellectual abilities, and that evaluating intellectual ability as a whole (i.e., general IQ) was not sufficient in elucidating the nuances of change with age. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Seattle Longitudinal Study (cont’d)  Found that fluid abilities tend to decline earlier than crystallized abilities, with decrements in fluid abilities occurring earlier in adulthood and crystallized abilities exhibiting a steeper decline in the late 70s and onward.  Found that there was a reliable decline in cognition by age 60 and older in some abilities, and that reliable declines were found for all abilities by age 74. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Seattle Longitudinal Study (cont’d)  Found substantial cohort differences that vary in magnitude and direction, which indicated that cross- sectional studies would not accurately assess cognitive aging. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Seattle Longitudinal Study (cont’d)  Variables that reduced the risk of cognitive decline in older adults: ‒ Absence of cardiovascular risk factors ‒ High socioeconomic status ‒ Involvement in a complex and intellectually stimulating environment ‒ A flexible personality style ‒ A high cognitive ability of one’s spouse ‒ Maintenance of high levels of processing speed Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Attention and Aging Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved.  Inhibitory Deficit Hypothesis (Hasher & Zacks, 1988)  Proposes that aging can affect an individual’s ability to employ attentional discrimination.  This leads to decreased ability for older adults to suppress unnecessary information, leading to higher levels of distractibility, reduced working memory capacity, and poor retrieval of details. Hasher, L., & Zacks, R. T. (1988). Working memory, comprehension, and aging: A review and a new view. In G. H. Bower & G. H. Bower (Eds.), The psychology of learning and motivation: advances in research and theory (Vol. 22, pp. 193–225). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. doi:10.1016/S0079-7421(08)60041-9 Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved.  Inhibitory Deficit Hypothesis (Hasher & Zacks, 1988) (cont’d)  The inhibitory deficit can also lead to greater proactive interference, or difficulty with learning something new due to old learning interfering with the new information being encoded. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Divided Attention (Multitasking)  Older adults struggle more with multitasking, or attending to multiple tasks simultaneously, compared to younger adults.  Older adults also show a decline in working memory on tasks that involve manipulating information while it is being stored in memory.  Older adults have a decreased ability to refocus after being disrupted from a task. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Processing Speed  Declines in processing speed begin in the 30s and continue on throughout the life span.  Salthouse’s (1996) processing speed theory posits that older adults struggle in two main mechanisms: limited time and simultaneity. Salthouse, T. A. (1996). The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition. Psychological Review, 103(3), 403–428. doi:10.1037/0033-295X.103.3.403 Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Processing Speed (cont’d)  Limited time: Older adults struggle to perform later operations because a majority of their processing time is spent on earlier operations.  This therefore limits and/or restricts their time for total processing of information. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Processing Speed (cont’d)  Salthouse:  Simultaneity mechanism: The inability to hold onto earlier processing information to be used to complete later processing.  Essentially that information may decay or become displaced, and therefore may not be available when it is needed. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Language  Overall language ability remains intact within the normal aging process.  Older adults even show improvement in narrative discourse.  Older adults are often thought to tell more interesting stories and exhibit more extensive vocabularies than younger adults.  Even though word-finding difficulties might increase or hearing loss might impact communication abilities. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Visuospatial Ability  Tends to remain intact with normal aging, consistent with occipital lobes remaining intact. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Memory and Aging Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Memory  Dependent on processing speed, selective attention, and organization of material to learn.  Declarative memory: ‒ Episodic ‒ Semantic  Nondeclarative memory: ‒ Procedural learning, priming, classical conditioning  Prospective memory: Remembering to do something in the future Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Episodic Memory  Episodic memory: Memory of personally experienced events.  Declines with age more than other types of memory.  Encoding, storage, or retrieval may cause loss of episodic memory.  Memory for recent events is more impacted than memory for events long ago. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Semantic Memory  General fund of information, such as language and facts.  Declines with aging, and may lead to declines in word- finding.  Episodic memory declines gradually over lifetime and semantic memory declines mostly in late life. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Procedural Memory  Memory for how to complete various motor tasks (e.g., typing on a keyboard, tying shoelaces, driving a car with manual transmission).  Increases with time and largely unaffected by aging. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Executive Functioning  Higher order cognitive skills that encompass a broad range of abilities.  Include planning, organization, cognitive control, set shifting/mental flexibility, multitasking, concept formation, problem solving, and abstract reasoning.  It also includes the ability to control behavior and resist impulsive actions, resulting in appropriate social interaction. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Executive Functioning (cont’d)  This requires higher level cognitive processing such as the ability to self- monitor, reason, solve problems, maintain cognitive flexibility, organize, and plan.  Declines in executive functioning can result in ‒ Reductions in judgment such as inhibiting inappropriate behaviors or statements, or falling for phone and e-mail scams ‒ Dressing inappropriately for the weather or different types of occasions ‒ Poor planning of events such as meals, parties, or errands Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Executive Functioning (cont’d)  Older adults tend to think more concretely than younger adults.  Older adults have more difficulty suppressing automatic responses in novel situations.  Changes in volume of the frontal lobes can be associated with an older adult’s inability to inhibit undesired actions such as talking excessively about a topic or making socially inappropriate comments. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Executive Functioning (cont’d) Positive changes:  Older adults tend to have a better ability to attend to positive emotions than younger adults.  Older adults may be more capable of solving some social problems because they are more likely to incorporate emotion-regulation strategies. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. “Wisdom” and Aging  Concept of wisdom varies across cultures and it is very difficult to define.  Little evidence for a relationship between wisdom and aging. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. “Wisdom” and Aging (cont’d)  Three factors that may relate to wisdom (Baltes and Staudinger, 2000): ‒ General personal characteristics, including cognitive ability ‒ Certain conditions of expertise, such as mentoring or practice ‒ Life experiences that enable acquisition of wisdom, such as education or leadership experience. Baltes, P. B., & Staudinger, U. M. (2000). Wisdom: A metaheuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate mind and virtue toward excellence. American Psychologist, 55, 122–136. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. “Wisdom” and Aging (cont’d)  These conditions require passage of time but not old age. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Driving and Aging Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved.  Who Are the Most Dangerous Drivers?  The rate of traffic accidents is higher among drivers aged 16 to 19 than for any other age group.  Per mile driven, drivers aged 16 to 19 are nearly three times more likely than drivers aged 20 and older to be in a fatal crash. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Driving and Aging  Older adult drivers represent the second age group most likely to be involved in accidents.  The ability to drive is paramount to independence and mobility.  However, the risk of being injured or killed in a motor vehicle accident increases with age, due to ‒ Increased crash risk ‒ Greater physical frailty when exposed to a crash Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved.  Most Dangerous Driving Situations  Making turns across opposing traffic at intersections  Merging from a yield lane  Changing lanes on a highway  Related to changes in visual attention and processing speed.  Increasingly difficult on busy streets or streets with a high number of visual distractors (e.g., billboards, businesses, multiple intersecting streets, and so forth). Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Useful Field of View  Amount between a central location and periphery that one can attend to.  Older adults have smaller useful field of view, which impacts driving. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Protective Factors  Older adults are more likely to wear seatbelts than younger adults.  Older adults more likely to refrain from driving in bad weather or at night.  Older adults drive fewer miles than younger drivers.  Older adults have the lowest rates of accidents while driving under the influence. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Impact of Cessation of Driving  Increased transportation burden on family and caregivers, particularly in rural areas.  Poorer health, higher rates of depression and institutionalization, increased mortality among older adults that stopped driving.  Loss of independence and freedom.  Older adults may fear loss of independence more than they fear death. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved.  Ways to Enable Older Adults to Continue Driving Safely  Speed of Processing Training  Modifying roadways: ‒ Improve lighting of signs ‒ Increased text size of signs ‒ Signs placed at strategic places to read them (e.g., 2 miles before an exit)  Modifying time estimates of perception and action (e.g., how long to make a yellow light last)  Self-driving cars Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved.  Mandatory Retirement Ages  The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) prohibits forced retirement for those older than 40.  However, there are a few professions that are not able to employ older adults indefinitely, because of public safety concerns.  These include pilots (65), air traffic controllers (56, with exceptions up to age 61), and federal law enforcement officers (57 or later if less than 20 years of service). Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved.  Mandatory Retirement Ages (cont’d)  Specifically aimed at professions that are considered to require high levels of physical and mental skill and/or are highly dangerous.  Aging affects the level of processing speed necessary for these jobs to be performed safely.  Mandatory retirement laws are controversial as they do not allow for individual variability and are typically based on limited scientific data. Copyright © Springer Publishing Company, LLC. All Rights Reserved.