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)
