10 - Applied Themes in Ageing Flashcards
what is the intuitive reasoning for mental exercise?
the brain is like a muscle, the more you train it, the more mentally fit you will be
what is the theoretical reasoning for mental exercise?
WM capacity constrains cognitive functions including fluid intelligence
expanding WM capacity should benefit cognitive functions it constrains
what methods should be used to establish causal role of mental exercise on cognition?
intervention method, longitudinal study with experimental and control group
evidence that mental exercise has effects on cognitive ability?
stronger positive correlations between high cognitive leisure (e.g. chess) and cognitive ability compared to low cognitive effort leisure (e.g. gardening)
what are the hypotheses for where the relationship between mental activity and cognition originates?
differential preservation hypothesis
preserved differentiation hypothesis
what is the differential preservation hypothesis?
mental activity is a factor that protects against age-related decline in mental activity
people start at similar level of cognitive performance in their 20s:
- those who engage in high mental activity show improvements in cognitive ability
- those who don’t show worsening cognitive mental ability
what is the preserved differentiation hypothesis?
mental activity is at least partly a manifestation of one’s prior level of mental ability
people with high mental exercise thus high cognitive function, were alway better than their peers who engage in low mental activity
mental exercise does not give benefits to people that didn’t already have it from a young age
what are methodological issues in the training literature? (not correlational)
- training conditions (number of sessions?)
- random assignment and pre-test differences in function
- active vs passive control groups
- publication bias towards positive results, null results don’t get published
- adaptive procedures, adjusting for task difficulty, people should be performing at their maximum
what are theoretical issues in the training literature? (not correlational)
what exactly is being trained
e.g. if training WM, what exactly is improving about WM to yield benefits of mental exercise
what are practical issues in the literature?
- what is the maintenance of training gains long-term?
- initial cognitive ability as potential moderator of intervention
- focus on near and far transfer effects
what are near and far transfer effects?
if we train and improve a core cognitive constructs, how much do those improvements translate to other related but distinct constructs?
WM trained using WM task:
near transfer: other WM task
far transfer: reasoning task
what does a meta-analysis of training tasks show?
training gains in both the trained task but also evidence of near and far transfer
no age differences in the effectiveness of training programmes
criticisms of training tasks meta-analysis
- far transfer = types of cognitive tasks merged
- no correction for baseline differences between groups
- unclear which studies using in meta-analysis, some had no control group, some had small sample size
what did the corrected meta-analysis for training tasks show?
when correcting for the issues, there are very little gains at all, with very few properly done studies
effectiveness of mental exercise in terms of far transfer is controversial; only clear benefits for trained tasks
how does engaging in leisure activities relate to successful ageing?
positively relates to:
- cognitive function
- physical function
- mental health
(however only correlational studies)
how does training lifestyles improve cognition?
productive engagement: requires active learning etc
receptive engagement: passive observation etc
episodic memory showed best benefits from photography lifestyle group but little else going on
how does age-related cognitive decline effect real life?
middle/older aged people as CEOs are over-represented even though top reasoning ability is most evident in older ages
age-related declines don’t have major consequences for functioning in society
age has no relationship with other job-related variables despite requiring cognitive constructs
why is there no relationship between age and job performance?
older adults excel in semantic memory
may have more wisdom and expertise
how does behaviour change as we grow older?
negative behavioural tendencies, like criminality decrease
prosocial behaviour, like volunteering increase
what is the criteria for wisdom according to the Berlin wisdom paradigm?
- factual knowledge
- procedural knowledge
- life-span contextualism
- value relativism and tolerance
- awareness and management of uncertainty
how can wisdom be measured?
participants presented with life problems and trained raters evaluate responses using criteria in Berlin wisdom paradigm
what is the relationship between wisdom and age?
there is no significant relationship
wisdom develops through experience but not everyone who accumulates experience becomes wiser
why is there a non-significant relationship between wisdom and age?
- cohort effects, not studied longitudinally
- relevance of the task to your own life
how is wisdom associated with relevance to the person?
YAs reported greater marital conflict and subsequently showed more wisdom-related knowledge for marital conflict scenarios than OAs
both YAs and OAs reported infrequent suicide, no difference between them for wisdom-related knowledge for suicide scenarios
does expertise moderate the associative binding deficit in older age?
OAs recalled less than YAs when the information was specific (numerical)
negligible difference for recall of related information
older accountants showed similar numerical memory as YAs, expertise shows domain-specific benefits
where are the correlations between age and job performance?
- even demanding jobs don’t require people to perform at one’s maximal level
- shift with age from novel processing to reliance on accumulated knowledge
- cognition is not the only determinant of success in life
- accommodations by individual to conceal deficits e.g. OAs may avoid driving at night
