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PSYC 322 > 6. Basic Cognitive Function > Flashcards

6. Basic Cognitive Function Flashcards

1
Q

what are the key assumptions of the information processing model?

A
  1. people are active participants in information processing
  2. both quantitative and qualitative aspects of performance can be examined
  3. information is processed through a series of processes
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2
Q

what is the movement of information in the information processing model?

A

sensory memory -> working memory (interacts with long term memory) -> response to stimuli

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3
Q

how does processing speed change as we age?

A
  • as tasks become more difficult, older adults take much longer to react
  • old and young people respond at a similar rate for easy tasks
  • most studies suggest older adults become less efficient in their use of attentional processes
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4
Q

what is the general slowing hypothesis?

A

increase in reaction time = general decline of information processing speed

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5
Q

what is the age-complexity hypothesis?

A
  • more complex tasks → older adults perform progressively more poorly
    • because processing resources are stretched more and more to their limit
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6
Q

what is the attentional resource theory?

A
  • older adults have fewer attentional resources than younger adults
    • if there are multiple things to pay attention to, older adults react more slowly
  • not a lot of evidence to support this idea
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7
Q

what is the inhibitory deficit hypothesis? how do older people compensate for this?

A
  • suggests that older adults have more difficulties in inhibiting the processing of irrelevant information
  • have a hard time blocking out things we don’t need to pay attention to
  • older adults perform worse on the stroop test as they are not able to ignore what the word says, and just look at the ink
  • but, older adults may even perform better than young adults on inhibitory tasks by activating their frontal lobes in a compensatory manner
  • roles of experience and training may mitigate some of these effects to preserve important areas of functioning
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8
Q

what is divided attention and how is it different in older adults? how was this studied?

A
  • suggests that older adults have difficulties multitasking or switching tasks that they should be doing
  • driving simulator test with two tests; tracking (keeping care straight), and counting dots that show up on the screen
  • all three groups can perform at 100% in tracking when there are no dots
  • when dots appear and told to ignore, not count, the older adults start to perform worse on tracking (inhibitory deficit)
  • when told to count dots, older adults have a much harder time tracking
    • shows inability to multitask
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9
Q

how do older and younger adults compare in visual search tasks?

A
  • require that observer locate a specific target among a set of distractors
  • in simple visual search tasks, young and old people perform similarly
  • there are big differences in difficulties in older and younger people in the conjunctive search
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10
Q

how does context and experience relate to visual searches when driving, for older adults?

A
  • what we know about an object determines where we look for it in an image
    • if asked to look for a plane, we look at the sky, if asked to look for a car, we look at the ground
  • younger adults faster to respond than older adults
  • constrained targets (knowing where an object might be) easier to find than unconstrained
  • contextual information helps older more than younger adults
  • important in driving because older adults need constrains more, need to know where to look, need to be familiar with the area
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11
Q

what is a summary of processing speed and attention for older vs. younger adults?

A

older adults tend to have…
- slower reaction times
- greater difficulties with inhibiting processing of irrelevant information
- greater difficulties multitasking (dividing attention)
- greater difficulties with serial visual searches

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12
Q

what are some common trends in car crashes and fatalities for different age groups?

A
  • people aged 16-17 have the most car crashes and the most injuries
    • older people drive more cautiously, younger people can be reckless
  • older people have the most fatal crashes
    • could be because they have a harder time recovering from crashes
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13
Q

what does the information processing model tell us about attention and memory?

A
  • we need to be paying attention in order for information to go from sensory memory to working/short term memory
  • in short term/working memory, we either work with the info, rehearse it, or it gets forgotten
  • sufficient rehearsal and practice causes info to her consolidated into long term memory
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14
Q

what is short term memory?

A
  • a limited capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed information for up to about 20 seconds
  • capacity is 7 + or - 2 pieces of information
  • rehearsal - process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about the information
  • maintenance rehearsal - repeating the information
  • elaborative rehearsal - link the info to existing knowledge
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15
Q

what is working memory?

A
  • a system that temporarily maintains and stores information by providing an interface between perception, memory, and action
  • keeps information temporarily available and active in consciousness
  • use your working memory when you are trying to learn new information
  • for the purpose of processing information
  • includes the central executive, that interacts with the phonological loop, episodic buffer, and visuospatial sketch pad
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16
Q

what is the default network?

A
  • a circuit in the brain that is active when the brain is at rest while processing internal stimuli
    • includes the hippocampus, parts of the prefrontal cortex, the parietal lobe, the temporal lobe, and part of the cingulate cortex
    • during tasks such as those involved in working memory, the default network becomes deactivated and other areas become activated
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17
Q

how do changes in the default mode network affect working memory?

A
  • age‐related changes in the ability to deactivate the default network may contribute in part to poorer working memory performance in older adults
    • instead of focusing on the information they need to be remembering, they use their cognitive resources on inwardly oriented stimuli
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18
Q

what is a phonological loop?

A
  • allows for recitation of information
  • similar to short term memory
  • usually used for auditory information
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19
Q

what is a visuospatial sketch pad?

A
  • allows us to temporarily hold and manipulate visual images
  • bring information/images in from long term memory
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20
Q

what is the episodic buffer?

A
  • interface between working and long term memory
  • temporarily limited capacity store for integration of information from other modules
  • helps with binding - information about an object is in different parts of the brain, needs to be bound when recalled
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21
Q

what is central executive in working memory?

A
  • coordinates the actions of the other modules
  • controls, focuses, divides attention
22
Q

how do older adults perform on N-back tests compared to younger adults?

A
  • at 1n, the gap between older and younger adults in very small
  • as n increases, older adults have more difficulty with the task
23
Q

what are the different ways we can present images in the visuospatial test?

A
  • using 5 apples, the presentation can either be:
    1. simultaneously (visual), or
    2. sequentially (spatial)
24
Q

how do older adults perform on a visuospatial memory test compared to younger adults?

A
  • older adults performed worse sequential vs simultaneous baseline and maintenance
  • this tells us that there are STRONGER age effects on spatial than visual working memory
25
Q

how do verbal vs. visual processing speeds change as tasks get harder for older and younger adults?

A
  • as verbal tasks get harder, the difference between older and younger adults’ performance only increases slightly
  • as visual processing tasks get harder, the difference between older and younger adults’ performance increases significantly
26
Q

what is long term memory?

A
  • a relatively enduring store of information
  • much larger capacity than short term memory
  • much longer retention than short term memory
27
Q

what is explicit memory? what are the different types?

A
  • explicit (declarative) - involves intentional recollection of factual information or previous experiences
  • episodic memory - chronological, temporally dated, recollections of (personal) experiences
    • often tested with recall or recognition
    • includes autobiographical memories
  • semantic memory - general knowledge not (or no longer) tied to the time when the information was learning
28
Q

how does episodic memory of recall of words change as we get older?

A

on tests of recall of words, older adults…
- omit more information
- include more intrusions (words from previous lists asked to remember)
- repeat more previously recalled information

29
Q

how does episodic memory of recall of positive and negative images/words change as we get older?

A

on tests of recall of images, older adults…
- recall positive images more than neutral and negative images
- recall the least amount of images overall

on tests of recognition of words, older adults…
- recognize positive, negative, and neutral words equally correctly
- younger adults recognize negative images the best

  • they recall positive images more, but recognize all valences equally
30
Q

how do we test autobiographical memory? what age do the most proportion of memories come from?

A
  • autobiographical memories are memories of our life that we were present for
  • testing by comparing independent records and recall of memory
    • for older people and young people, the greatest proportion of memories come from mid teens to 30s
31
Q

what are flashbulb memories?

A

the recall of important and distinctive events that stand out from other memories of past events

32
Q

what is scaffolding theory?

A

older adults are able to recruit alternate neural circuits as needed by task demands to make up for losses suffered elsewhere in the brain

33
Q

what is remote memory? how is it affected by age?

A
  • involves recall of information from the distant past
    • older people remember recent events better than those of the distant past
34
Q

what is source memory? how do older adults differ in this?

A
  • recall of where or how an individual acquires information
    • older adults seem to have greater difficulty on source memory tasks when they must judge where they saw an item on a previous occasion
  • age differences in source memory may be due to the tendency for older adults to form more global memories (“the gist”)
    • leaves them open to false memories about some of the details
35
Q

what are the age related changes in semantic memory?

A

in general, there are few-age related deficits in semantic memory
- retrieval does not impact working memory
- retrieval is not cue dependent (unlike episodic)
- difficulties with retrieval of infrequently used information
- increased frequency of tip-of-the-tongue (feeling of knowing)

36
Q

what is implicit memory? how does it change with age?

A
  • involves retrieval of information without conscious or intentional recollection
  • information is also often not consciously or intentionally learned
    • not impacted by age
37
Q

what are the different types of implicit memory?

A
  • procedural memory - memories of how to execute specific actions, skills, and/or operations (muscle memory)
  • priming memory - the ability to identify a stimulus more easily/quickly or a change in behaviour due to previous exposure to similar stimuli
  • conditioning - operant and classical conditioning, associating stimuli with punishment/reward
  • habituation - getting rid of information that is not important
    • like getting used to the sound of a clock ticking
38
Q

what is prospective memory?

A
  • involves remembering to remember something (an intention) in the future, such as an action or event
  • prospective memory declines with age
39
Q

what is the process of remembering for prospective memory?

A
  1. we form an intention
  2. we monitor for an event or time cue
  3. we detect the cue and retrieve the intention
  4. intention recall
  5. intention execution
40
Q

what aspects of prospective memory decline with age?

A
  • older people have harder time monitoring for time cues
  • no difference between young and old people for monitoring for event cues
41
Q

how do older and younger people differ in remembering and executing intentions in prospective memory?

A
  • no age differences for errors of omission -> both old and young were able to recall and act on intentions
  • more older adults made errors of commission
    • meaning they acted on an intention, but it was wrong
42
Q

what are the real world consequences of older adults difficulty with prospective memory?

A
  • they miss doses of their medicine
  • they have more difficulty with adhering to treatment plans
  • prospective memory is a factor in this
    • commission - accidentally take the pills twice or three times
    • omission - forgetting to take the pills
43
Q

what is retrieval-induced forgetting?

A
  • tip‐of‐the‐tongue phenomenon, when you are unable to remember information that you knew at one time
    • education may help buffer against at least some of the face‐naming deficits associated with aging
44
Q

what are some aspects of memory that decline and some aspects that remain stable?

A

decline:
- episodic memory
- source memory
- false memory
- retrieval failure
- prospective memory

stable:
- semantic memory
- flashbulb memory
- implicit memory
- procedural memory

45
Q

how does self-efficacy impact working memory?

A
  • concern about memory loss can lead to identity accommodation that turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy
  • memory self-efficacy is related to memory performance in studies
    • impossible to determine whether lower self‐efficacy caused poorer performance or whether it reflected actual negative changes
  • there is a positive relationship between self-efficacy and working memory
46
Q

what is stereotype threat? what does it result in and how can it be overcome?

A
  • people perform in ways consistent with negative stereotypes of the group to which they see themselves as belonging
    • the older person’s self‐identification as “old” contributes to lower memory test scores
  • older adults can overcome stereotype threat through identity assimilation
47
Q

what is memory controllability and how does it affect the aging process of memory?

A
  • refers to beliefs about the effects of the aging process on memory
    • such as the extent to which the individual believes that memory decline is inevitable with age
  • if people believe that they can control their memory they are more likely to take advantage of the strategies to ensure higher performance
48
Q

how do health related behaviours affect memory as we age?

A
  • cigarette smoking led to poorer memory in older age
  • consumption of fish high in omega-3 fatty acids led to a slower rate of cognitive decline
    • people in higher social status are more likely to include fish in their regular diets
49
Q

how does exercise affect memory?

A
  • exercise leads to improvements in attention, memory, accuracy, and information processing
  • exercise may have indirect effects on memory by helping older adults feel stronger and more competent
50
Q

how does metabolic syndrome affect memory?

A
  • people with metabolic syndrome are at a higher risk of Alzheimer’s
    • impaired glucose tolerance shows a clear relationship to cognitive functioning
  • older adults with type 2 diabetes are more likely to experience slowing of psychomotor speed and declines in executive functioning
51
Q

how does stress affect memory?

A
  • stress can interfere with memory performance among older adults
    • stressors on one day predicted memory failures on the next day
    • but, emotional strain can interfere with memory in anyone regardless of age
  • interference of emotions (depression), may contribute to poorer performance in older adults by depleting valuable cognitive resources
  • preoccupation with stress occupies attentional resources that could otherwise be devoted to the memory task
52
Q

how does sleep affect memory?

A
  • in young adults, long‐term memory is strongly linked to slow‐wave sleep
    • experimental subjects allowed to sleep in between learning and testing consistently achieve better memory performance

PSYC 322 (14 decks)

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