imbatranirea Flashcards
How can we define ageing?
We can define ageing according to a number of different criteria:
- physical: body, hair, skin
- cognitive: executive function, memory, processing speed
-psychosocial: opportunities, social network, employment
What is the stage of Erikson’s Developmental stages that is concerned with old age?
Old age: 65 - death
What is the old stage characterised by?
Ego integrity (feeling a sense of accomplishment) vs despair
Individuals reflect on their lives
If life was successful and they achieved goals = wisdom
If failure = regret and despair
Loss of identity
What is Levinson’s developmental stage of old age?
Late adulthood: 65+
Giving up authority
Retirement
Own interests
Develop wisdom
Reflect on life experiences
Which cognitive abilities change with age?
Cross-sectional studies:
- abilities like verbal memory, spatial orientation decrease
- numeric ability and verbal ability appear to remain steady
HOWEVER
Longitudinal studies:
- all these abilities are shown to be decreasing with age
What are the theories of cognitive ageing?
Common cause hypotheses - deficits in a single ability can explain almost all age-related cognitive decline
Specific gain/loss hypotheses
- age related cognitive decline is best explained by changes in neuroanatomical structure or function
What are the sub-theories of common cause hypothesis?
- Information Processing Speed
- Inhibitory Deficit
- Sensory
What is information processing speed hypothesis?
Information processing speed is main deficit in ageing
Declines in information processing speed can explain other cognitive difficulties
What are the 2 mechanisms of the information processing speed hypothesis?
Limited time mechanism: less info is processed in a given amount of time. Therefore operations may not be completed due to slow processing.
Simultaneity mechanism: products from early processing may no longer be available at later processing. Slow processing reduces quantity or quality of information available.
What is the evidence to support the IPS hypothesis?
Age-related variance in fluid intelligence was accounted for information processing speed and working memory.
Variance in working memory was partly accounted for by information processing speed.
What is a critique of IPS?
IPS importance seems to vary with task used
Memory seems to be partly independent of information processing speed
No clear mechanism for why IPS is primary deficit
