chapter 15 notecards

Question 1

some apparent decrements in cognitive aging result from _____________

Answer 1

weaknesses in the research itself

Question 2

Many early cross-sectional studies showed a peak in performance at age 35 followed by a steep drop into old age
longitudinal research starting in the 1920s revealed an age related ______ in performance
____________ on 5 mental abilities showed the typical drop after the mid-30s, similar to previous studies
_______ are largely responsible for this difference

Answer 2

increase
cross-sectional research
cohort effects

Question 3

skills that depend on accumulated knowledge and experience, good judgment, and mastery of social conventions
Largely influenced by culture
Measured on intelligence tests by performance on vocabulary, general information, verbal comprehension, and logical reasoning

Answer 3

crystallized intelligence

Question 4

– depends more heavily on basic information-processing skills – ability to detect relationships among visual stimuli, speed of analyzing information, and capacity of working memory
Measured on intelligence tests by items involving spatial visualization, digit span, letter-number sequencing, and symbol search

Answer 4

fluid intelligence

Question 5

crystallized intelligence ________ through middle adulthood

fluid intelligence begins to ______ in the 20s

Answer 5

increases steadily

decline

Question 6

some theorists believe that a general _______ of the ________ funcitoning underlies nearly all age related declines in cognitive performancve

Answer 6

general slowing of central nervous system

Question 7

reasons why fluid intelligence declines earlier, but crystallized abilities gain and then stabilize
The decrease in basic processing speed and capacity, while substantial after age 45, may not be great enough to affect many well-practiced performances until quite late in life
Adults can often compensate for cognitive limitations by drawing on their _________
As people discover that they are no longer as good as they once were at certain tasks, they ________, shifting to activities that depend less on cognitive efficiency and more on ________
ex. The basketball player becomes a coach and the once quick-witted salesperson becomes a manager

Answer 7

cognitive strengths
accomodate
accumulated knowledge

Question 8

name given to the trend for IQ scores to increase with each new generation

Answer 8

flynn effect

Question 9

– as neurons in the brain die, breaks in neural networks occur
The brain adapts by forming bypasses – new synaptic connections that go around the breaks but are less efficient

Answer 9

neural network view

Question 10

suggests that older adults experience greater loss of information as it moves through the cognitive system
As a result, the whole system must slow down to inspect and interpret the information
Ex. Imagine making a photocopy, then using it to make another copy, each subsequent copy is less clear

Answer 10

information loss view

Question 11

predicts adults performance on many tests of complex abilities

Answer 11

processing speed

Question 12

______ contributes broadly to declines in _____ functioning

Answer 12

processing speed

cognitive

Question 13

processing speed is a _______ of the skill with which older adults perform complex, ____ tasks in every day life

Answer 13

weak predictor

familiar tasks