Cognitive: Early- Late Adulthood Flashcards
Postformal Thought
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.
Dialectical Thought
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.
Millennials
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.
Bi-lateralization
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.
Fluid Intelligence
the capacity to learn new ways of solving problems and performing activities quickly and abstractly; decreases with age
Crystalized Intelligence
the accumulation of information, facts, and abilities gained over the course of a lifetime; increases with age.
Expertise
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.
Burnout
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.
Late Adulthood Brain Functioning
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.
Late Adulthood Neurogenesis
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.
Brain Compensation
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.
Cognitive Reserve
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.
Parkinson’s Disease
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.
Advanced Sleep Phase Syndrome
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
Insomnia
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.
Working memory
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
Episodic Memory
long-term memory that involves conscious recollection of previous experiences. Part of the explicit memory system, which requires conscious effort to create and retrieve
Semantic Memory
long-term memory involving the recollection general knowledge. Part of the explicit memory system, which requires conscious effort to create and retrieve
Implicit memory
memory of things that people do not purposely try to remember (procedural skills, classical conditioning, and priming)
Prospective memory
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”
Processing Speed Theory
suggests that as the nervous system slows with advanced age, the ability to process information declines
Inhibition theory
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
Pragmatics of intelligence
are cultural exposure to facts and procedures that are maintained as one ages and are similar to crystallized intelligence
Mechanics of intelligence
are dependent on brain functioning and decline with age, similar to fluid intelligence.
Wisdom
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.
Major Neurocognitive Disorder
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.
Minor Neurocognitive Disorder
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.
Alzheimer’s Disease
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+)
