Cognitive Change in Adulthood

Question 1

The Aging Brain

Answer 1

• Decrease in brain volume
• -Dendrites contract
• -Number of synapses decreases
• -Myelin thins (“last-in first-out” hypothesis)
• Severity of decline is impacted by diet and exercise
• Rely on a cognitive reserve to compensate for loss

Question 2

Cognitive Abilities At Midlife

Answer 2

• Schaie’s Seattle Longitudinal Study (1956-present) –
• -Some abilities peak: Verbal ability, inductive reasoning, verbal memory, spatial orientation, numeric ability
• Delays in declines:
• -Above-avg education, self-directed occupations, stimulating leisure activities, flexible personalities, lasting marriages, absence of diseases, economically well-off

Question 3

Processing Speed

Answer 3

• Reaction time (See Light: Press Button) slower with age
• –Peaks in the 20s
• –Differences more noticeable if relies on motor response
• Why?
• –Neural network view – neurons die, networks break, brain adapts by forming bypasses (new synaptic connections), less efficient
• –Information-loss view – info is lost moving through cognitive system; whole system slows down to inspect/ interpret info
• —-Using photocopy to make photocopy, less clear

Question 4

Attention

Answer 4

• Defined as:
• –How much information you can focus on at a single time
• –Your ability to divide attention and task-switch
• –Your ability to focus on relevant information
• As we age from middle adulthood to late adulthood…
• –Task-switching becomes increasingly difficult (e.g., cocktail party effect)
• –Hard time ignoring irrelevant information

If black, tell me ODD or EVEN. If red, don’t say anything

• Why do we see a decline?
• –Due to reduced processing speed
• –Inhibition is harder (resistance to interference from irrelevant information decreases)

-BUT experience and practice can offset age-related declines

Question 5

Memory

Answer 5

• Working memory capacity begins to decline in the 20s (noticeable in 60s)
• Semantic memory and procedural memory stays the same as young adulthood and can increase throughout adulthood
• Verbal memory better than spatial memory
• Why do we see a decline?
• -Decline in attention
• –If you can’t stay as focused on relevant information, hard to process what is most important
• Decline in memory strategies (organization & elaboration)
• -Older – rehearse less (slower rate of thinking)
• -Reduction in working memory capacity
• -Harder to recall from LTM (irrelevant material in the way)
• –And if you can’t retrieve info from LTM, won’t be able to form new connections