chapter 6 Flashcards
Information-Processing Model
– The information-processing model is based on three assumptions:
Uses a computer metaphor to explain how people process stimuli (info enters brain, transformed, coded and stored permanently or temporarily)
– The information-processing model is based on three assumptions:
▪ People are active participants in the process.
▪ Both quantitative and qualitative aspects of
performance can be examined.
▪ Information is processed through a series of hypothetical stages or processes.
Sensory memory
– A brief and almost identical representation of the
stimuli that exists in the observable environment.
attention
Functional Perspective:
Attentional control is linked to the
Functional Perspective: Attention is composed of separate dimensions serving different functions.
– Attentional control is linked to the parieto-frontal lobes.
Speed of Processing
– How quickly and efficiently the early steps in information processing are completed
▪ Evidence including neuroimaging studies indicates age-related slowing depends on what adults are being asked to do (e.g., choosing which response to make)
▪ The amount of beta-amyloid protein in the central nervous system is related to the degree processing speed slows.
divided attention
concerned how well people perform multiple tasks simultaneously
• Processing Resources
The amount of attention one has to apply to a particular situation
▪ Two possible reasons for decline in processing with age:
– Inhibitory loss: Older adults may have difficulty inhibiting the processing of irrelevant information.
» Emotionally supportive messages reduce distracting thoughts and improve performance on everyday tasks.
– Attentional changes: But older adults are not worse than younger adults at dividing attention, in general.
» Older adults are just as able to multitask but perform each task a bit more slowly.
– Automatic Processing:
age difference?
places minimal demands on attentional capacity
▪ Gets information into the system largely without us being aware of it
▪ Performance on tasks that depend on automatic processes do not demonstrate significant age differences.
stop at a stop sign without thinking to much
no age difference
– Effortful Processing:
age difference?
requires all of the available attentional capacity
▪ When there is effort and deliberate processing involved to remember the information, age differences emerge.
age diff
Memory includes
encoding, storage, retrieval
encoding- getting info into memory system
storage: manner in which info is represented and kept in memory
retrieval: getting info back out of memory
• Working Memory
Using that information to:
Rehearsal:
The active processes and structures involved in holding information in mind (mental scratchpad)
▪ Solve a problem
▪ Make a decision
▪ Learn new information
-Rehearsal: The process by which information is held in working memory (repeated times over and over or making connections)
– Working memory capacity _____with age and seems to be related to declines in:
declines:
▪ storage capacity
▪ ability to allocate capacity to more than one task
▪ slower rates of information processing
– Age-related declines are not universal, however they are greater:
▪ for spatial working memory than for verbal working memory, although there are declines in both.
▪ Greater working knowledge counterbalances declines in working memory in some situations.
▪ On more complex tasks relative to simpler ones
• Implicit versus Explicit Memory
– Implicit memory (procedural memory)
▪ Retrieval of information without conscious or intentional recollection
▪ An example is a language task such as stem completion.
▪ Smaller age differences than explicit memory
ex: brush teeth
– Explicit memory (declarative)
▪ Intentional and conscious remembering of information that is learned at a specific point in time
▪ Performance on explicit memory tasks declines with age.
• Long-Term Memory
recall vs, recognition
– The ability to remember extensive amounts of information from a few seconds, hours, or decades.
– Semantic Memory-increases and levels off
▪ Learning and remembering the meaning of words and concepts that are not tied to specific occurrences of events in time
– Episodic Memory- stable declines after 65
▪ Conscious recollection of information from a specific event or point in time
▪ Recall (remembering without hints) versus recognition (choosing from items)
– Age Differences in Semantic Memory
▪ Semantic memory is relatively spared in normal aging.
▪ Changes can happen if it becomes hard to access and retrieve if the knowledge is not used and if adults are experiencing momentary retrieval failure (tip-of-the- tongue).
recall test
recognition
people are asked to remember info
-selecting previously learned info from among several items ex: MC test
– Age Differences in Episodic Memory
▪ Older adults perform worse than younger adults on recall tests.
o Omit more information
o Include more intrusions
o Repeat more previously recalled items
▪ Less Difference with Recognition Tests
o Older adults are more likely to say they recognize items
that were never presented.
o Change in brain activity in the prefrontal cortex
▪ Autobiographical memory is more resistant to declining.
• Age Differences in Encoding versus Retrieval
The spontaneous use of strategies during the learning of new information ______ with age.
Changes in the___________underlies the encoding declines.
Older adults tend to spontaneously use _____ retrieval strategies than younger adults.
Age-related_______ brain activity for retrieval to work around the normal changes occurring in information processin
– Encoding
o The spontaneous use of strategies during the learning of new information declines with age.
o Changes in the left lateral prefrontal cortex underlies the encoding declines.
– Retrieval
▪ Older adults tend to spontaneously use fewer retrieval strategies than younger adults.
▪ Age-related compensatory brain activity for retrieval to work around the normal changes occurring in information processin
• Prospective Memory
– Remembering to perform a planned action in the future
– Differences between event-based and time-based future events
▪ Time-based remembering is more age related.
• Autobiographical Memory-is a form of what kind of memory
– Flashbulb memories
– Involves remembering information and events from our own life
▪ It is a form of episodic memory.
– Flashbulb memories
▪ Vivid memories of very personal or emotional events, but these are often inaccurate
– Events experienced between 10 and 30 years of age are reported more often than those occurring in middle adulthood.
• Source Memory
– The ability to remember the source of a familiar event and the ability to determine if an event was imagined or actually experienced
▪ Older adults are less accurate at many source-memory tasks.
▪ Older adults show overactivation of the prefrontal cortex when confronted with source memory tasks.
• False Memory
memory errors
– When one remembers items or events that did not occur
▪ Older adults tend to be more susceptible to false memory issues than younger adults.
4 Factors That Preserve Memory: Cognitive Reserve
– Exercise
▪ Physical exercise improves cognitive performance. – Multilingualism and Cognitive Functioning
▪ Research suggests that older adults who speak four or more languages had the best cognitive state.
– Semantic Memory in Service of Episodic Memory
▪ Older adults are better in episodic memory when they can use previously learned semantic information to support episodic knowledge.
– Negative Stereotypes and Memory Performance
▪ Older adults do worse on memory tasks if they believe that
age hampers memory ability.
– Metamemory:
– Memory Monitoring:
– Metamemory: knowledge about how memory works and what we believe is true about it
– Memory Monitoring: awareness of what we are doing with our memory right now
• Age Differences in Metamemory
– Older adults:
▪ seem to know less about how memory works than younger adults
▪ view memory as less stable
▪ expect that memory will deteriorate
▪ perceive they have less control over memory
The Role of Memory Self-Efficacy
– Memory Self-efficacy:
• Age Differences in Memory Monitoring
– Memory Self-efficacy: the belief that one will be able to perform a specific task
▪ One may know a good deal about how memory works, but still believe they possess low ability to perform a specific memory task.
▪ Memory successes tend to bolster self-efficacy, and failures reduce one’s belief of memory competence.
• Age Differences in Memory Monitoring
– The ability to monitor one’s memory does not appear to decline with age.
- Normal versus Abnormal Memory Aging
* Memory and Physical and Mental Health
– Distinguish by asking if changes disrupt a person’s ability to function in everyday life
▪ Such as repeatedly forgetting to turn off the stove ▪ Forgets the way home
– Telling the difference is often difficult.
– Damage to the brain can cause memory issues.
– Temporary global amnesia (TGA): Negative effects on cognitive functioning following concussion
• Memory and Nutrition
– Several components in healthy diets are essential for well-functioning memory.
▪ Flavonoids may reverse age-related deficits in spatial memory.
▪ Iron has also been associated with better verbal memory.
▪ Vitamin B including 6 and 9 (folic acid)
– Serious decrements in memory may be caused by poor diet.
