Cognitive: Early- Late Adulthood

Question 1

Postformal Thought

Answer 1

advanced type of thinking that incorporates evaluating realistic possibilities and making practical choices.

Adults have gained experience and understand why possibilities do not always become realities. They learn to base decisions on what is realistic and practical, not idealistic, and they can make adaptive choices. Adults are also not as influenced by what others think as adolescents.

Question 2

Dialectical Thought

Answer 2

Adolescents tend to think in dichotomies—ideas are true or false; good or bad. Adults come to recognize some right/wrong in positions.

The ability to bring together important aspects of two opposing viewpoints or positions is referred to as dialectical thought and is considered one of the most advanced aspects of postformal thinking.

Question 3

Millennials

Answer 3

People born in the 1980s and 1990s. Young adults are more likely to find themselves job-hopping and periodically returning to school for further education and retraining than in prior generations. As of 2016, millennials became the largest generation in the labor force of employment.

Question 4

Bi-lateralization

Answer 4

Research has demonstrated that older adults use more of their brains than younger adults. In fact, older adults who perform the best on tasks are more likely to demonstrate bi-lateralization (simultaneous use of both sides of the brain) than those who perform worst. Additionally, the amount of white matter in the brain, which is responsible for forming connections among neurons, increases into a person’s fifties before it declines.

Question 5

Fluid Intelligence

Answer 5

the capacity to learn new ways of solving problems and performing activities quickly and abstractly; decreases with age

Question 6

Crystalized Intelligence

Answer 6

the accumulation of information, facts, and abilities gained over the course of a lifetime; increases with age.

Question 7

Expertise

Answer 7

an individual’s specialized skills and knowledge that pertain to a particular topic or activity. Middle-aged adults are likely to find that when faced with a problem, they have faced something similar before. This allows them to ignore the irrelevant and focus on the important aspects of the issue. Expertise is one reason many people often reach the top of their careers in middle adulthood.

Question 8

Burnout

Answer 8

unsuccessfully managed workplace stress. American workers may experience more burnout than workers in other developed nations because other developed nations guarantee by law a set number of paid vacation days.

Question 9

Late Adulthood Brain Functioning

Answer 9

the brain loses 5- 10% of its weight between 20 and 90 years of age. This decrease in brain volume appears to be due to the shrinkage of neurons, lower number of synapses, and shorter length of axons.

Question 10

Late Adulthood Neurogenesis

Answer 10

new neurons continued to form into old age. Researchers examined the post-mortem brain tissue of individuals between the ages of 79 and 99 (an average age of 90.6) and found evidence of neurogenesis (creation of new neurons) in the hippocampus.

Question 11

Brain Compensation

Answer 11

the ability of the brain to increase certain activity and/or recruit additional regions in brain to support behavioral performance. Is especially noted in the additional effort demonstrated by those individuals who are aging well.

Question 12

Cognitive Reserve

Answer 12

the structural and dynamic capacities of the brain that buffer against atrophies and lesions.
Cognitive training improves the efficiency of the prefrontal cortex and executive functions such as working memory and strengthens the plasticity of neural circuits.

Question 13

Parkinson’s Disease

Answer 13

characterized by motor tremors, loss of balance, poor coordination, rigidity, and difficulty moving. Parkinson’s affects approximately 1% those over the age of 60, and it appears more frequently in family members in a little less than 10% of cases.

Question 14

Advanced Sleep Phase Syndrome

Answer 14

a sleep disorder in which the major sleep episode is advanced with respect to the desired clock time that results in symptoms of evening sleepiness and early awakening.
Older adults need between 7 to 9 hours of sleep per night, but they tend to go to sleep earlier and get up earlier than those younger

Question 15

Insomnia

Answer 15

the most common problem in those 60 and older. People with insomnia have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep. There are many reasons why older people may have insomnia, including certain medications, being in pain, having a medical or psychiatric condition, and even worrying before bedtime about not being able to sleep.

Question 16

Working memory

Answer 16

active, effortful part of our memory system. Composed of 3 major systems: The phonological loop (info about auditory stimuli), the visuospatial sketchpad (info about visual stimuli), and the central executive (oversees working memory). Negatively impacted by age

Question 17

Episodic Memory

Answer 17

long-term memory that involves conscious recollection of previous experiences. Part of the explicit memory system, which requires conscious effort to create and retrieve

Question 18

Semantic Memory

Answer 18

long-term memory involving the recollection general knowledge. Part of the explicit memory system, which requires conscious effort to create and retrieve

Question 19

Implicit memory

Answer 19

memory of things that people do not purposely try to remember (procedural skills, classical conditioning, and priming)

Question 20

Prospective memory

Answer 20

refers to remembering things that need to be done in the future, such as remembering a doctor’s appointment next week or taking medication before bedtime. It has been described as “the flip-side of episodic memory”

Question 21

Processing Speed Theory

Answer 21

suggests that as the nervous system slows with advanced age, the ability to process information declines

Question 22

Inhibition theory

Answer 22

argues that older adults have difficulty with inhibitory functioning, or the ability to focus on certain information while suppressing attention to less pertinent information tasks

Question 23

Pragmatics of intelligence

Answer 23

are cultural exposure to facts and procedures that are maintained as one ages and are similar to crystallized intelligence

Question 24

Mechanics of intelligence

Answer 24

are dependent on brain functioning and decline with age, similar to fluid intelligence.

Question 25

Wisdom

Answer 25

is the ability to use the accumulated knowledge about practical matters that allows for sound judgment and decision-making. A wise person is insightful and has knowledge that can be used to overcome obstacles in living.

Question 26

Major Neurocognitive Disorder

Answer 26

is diagnosed as a significant cognitive decline from a previous level of performance in one or more cognitive domains, one that interferes with independent functioning.

Question 27

Minor Neurocognitive Disorder

Answer 27

is diagnosed as a modest cognitive decline from a previous level of performance in one or more cognitive domains and does not interfere with independent functioning.

Question 28

Alzheimer’s Disease

Answer 28

One of the most well-known and most common neurocognitive disorder for older individuals. In 2016, an estimated 5.4 million Americans were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (approximately 1 in 9 age 65+)