Aging and Processing Speed/Attention

Question 1

What is the most consistent research finding associated with aging and specific cognitive skills?

Answer 1

Increasing age is accompanied by slowing of both mental and physical functions

Question 2

Discuss significant differences in circadian rhythms between young and older adults

Answer 2

Optimal time of day for successful completion of certain cognitive tasks for young children and individuals in late adulthood is morning; shift occurs at age 12 away from morningness toward peak arousal and task performance levels for young adults in the evening; life span trend of day preference eventually comes full circle

Question 3

What did May and Hasher call the beneficial effect of matching task demands and preferred time of day?

Answer 3

Synchrony effect

Question 4

What did research of synchrony effect indicate?

Answer 4

Synchrony between individual preferences and time of testing is a powerful effect and all responses, except highly practiced ones, are affected; attentional regulation over both incoming info and outgoing responses are particularly vulnerable to time of day’s effects

Question 5

What does the research on aging and attention show?

Answer 5

Sustained and selective attention are not significantly affected by increased age; however, age-related declines found on tasks requiring divided attention, for example, dichotic listening tasks (these show consistent age effects)