Kensinger: Aging Flashcards
What are 5 main aspects of aging?
- Social-emotional
- Societal
- Evolutionary
- Neurobiological
- Cognitive
What are the 3 main socio-emotional aspects of aging?
- Living with limitations (mobility, interests)
- Smaller world (loneliness)
- Purpose in life (retirement, depression, loss)
What is ageism?
Prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination based on age
What’s the difference between prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination?
Prejudice = how we feel
Stereotyping = how we think (takes individual dignity away)
Discrimination = how we act
Why isn’t ageism banned yet?
It’s more socially accepted and often meant as an innocent thing
What are the benefits of employing an older person?
- more experience
- less panic
- mentoring
- loyal
What are 5 things you can do about ageism?
- raise awareness
- speak out
- no prejudices/stereotypes
- treat everyone the same
- promote inter-generational contact
What is the consequence of exposure to ageism?
It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy
What is a societal aspect of aging? Name three consequences of this
Due to baby-boom there are more older adults with increased longevity
- Elderly live autonomously as long as possible
- Increased pressure on family/caretakers
- Financing retirements is problematic
From an evolutionary perspective, why do we age?
- Evolutionary pressure of natural selection
- There is no evolutionary pressure to select genes that promote successful aging
How does our sleep rhythm develop over age? What are the consequences of this?
- Less deep sleep
- More active in the morning
- Need for naps
Consequences: reduced cognitive performance, weaker memory consolidation
What’s the difference between ontogenesis and fylogenesis?
Ontogenesis = individual development
Fylogenesis = development of the species
What is dual aging?
More older adults and more longevity
What are 4 main aspects of cognitive decline?
- Regulative functions
- Memory
- Self-efficacy & self-management
- Orienting
What are considered regulative functions and how does this decline with age?
- Stability and flexibility (switching tasks, shielding goals)
- Working memory (updating, remembering)
- Planning, impulse control
It declines because of deterioration PFC
Which brain regions decline first with age?
(Dorsolateral) prefrontal cortex + hippocampus
What is the difference between self-efficacy and self-management ability? How does this decline with age?
Self-efficacy = self-confidence
Self-management = capacity to control own behavior/emotions
This declines because of prefrontal decline
Which type of memory gets harder to remember with age?
Contextual details of events (where, who, when)
What are the 4 notions of orienting?
- Notion of place (where you are)
- Notion of temporal space (where were you then)
- Notion of contextual space
- Notion of autobiographical space (who are you)
Which cognitive aspect declines fast with dementia?
Memory and orienting
What are cognitive processes that remain stable with age and which processes can improve with age?
Stable: creativity, language, social
Improve: crystallized knowledge, wisdom
What are the two main purposes of intervention and prevention in aging?
- promote resilience against stressors
- prevent neurocognitive decline
Which three factors are important in personal differences in cognitive status with aging?
- lifestyle
- social connectedness/purpose in life
- brain and skill training
What is most important to establish social connectedness at later age?
- intergenerational contact
- meaning
- activity
- competence
What does skill training promote neurologically?
Structural and functional neural network connectivity
What is the issue with research done in brain gymnastics?
Poor replicability and many studies aren’t properly conducted
What are the 4 criteria of the DSM to get the diagnosis of dementia?
- Memory problems
- Cognitive problems in at least another domain
- Influences daily functioning
- Clear consciousness, non-hallucinating
Which 3 brain areas does dementia affect?
PFC –> cognitive functions
Amygdala –> emotion regulation
MTL/hippocampus –> memory consolidation
What are 3 functions of social and affective factors in aging?
1 Influence speed of cognitive decline
2 Functions remain relatively reserved with age
3 Provide rich form of environmental support + cues for elderly
What are three categories of theories of cognitive aging?
- Focus on availability of resources
- Focus on compensatory strategies
- Focus on domain-specific areas of loss
What does the theory that focuses on availability of resources say about cognitive aging?
- Cognitive resources are limited the older you get
- Context influences availability resources (time of day)
What are cognitive resources? What is the link with variability in socioaffective functioning in elderly?
Things like attention, efficiency, executive function and inhibition.
Variability in socioaffective functioning has been linked to differences in availability of resources
What is meant with ‘convergence and divergence between resources and cognitive/sociaffective domains? How does this work?
Emotional/social memory is better preserved than nonsocial memory
Emotional info can capture attention and arousing/self-relevant info is prioritized
What is the main point of the focus on compensatory strategies theory?
Older adults recruit additional resources to attempt to address cognitive challenges
What is the posterior-anterior shift with aging (PASA) model?
Identifies patterns of age-related changes across regions
- Increased frontal lobe and decreased occipital lobe activity
What do the HAROLD and CRUNCH models both tell?
Older adults need to recruit additional neural regions to support task performance
What is the difference in strategies of reducing negative emotions between young and elderly?
Young: cognitive reappraisal
Old: situation selection
How do elderly differ from young in how they encode information concerning themselves?
Elderly tend to apply resources to process emotional info in a more controlled way than young adults
What is the main aspect of the theory of domain-specific areas of loss?
Some age-related declines may not be explained by core deficits, but by changes that have a larger impact on 1 area of cognition than on the other
Which two regions are least affected with aging? What is the consequence of this?
Ventromedial PFC + amygdala
–> preservation of socioaffective functioning and emotions
What is wisdom?
Ability that integrates socioaffective aging and cognitive function through the accumulation of knowledge, social/cognitive experience and emotional processes
What are the main changes in the PFC with age?
Atrophy white and grey matter and hemispheric asymmetry reduction (HAROLD)
What is mild cognitive aging?
When aging doesn’t prevent performance of daily activities, but it can be fairly severe (e.g. memory loss)
How do socio/emotional factors impact what is remembered from a scene?
Attention is oriented in older age
–> attention often towards positive or self-relevant info
What is the influence of emotion on cognition?
- Enhances attention and memory
- Distracts, impedes task performance
What are the benefits and negative aspects of social influences on cognition?
Benefits:
1. Large network –> boost memory accuracy
2. Mitigate learning/memory deficits in elderly
Negatives:
1. Perspective taking difficulties
2. Social interactions remind elderly of ageism –> self-fulfilling prophecy
Which type of intelligence declines with age?
Fluid intelligence
Which component of the Theory of Mind is more preserved with age and which type of intelligence can protect from ToM declines?
Affective component is preserved
Crystallized intelligence can help protect from ToM declines
How does the cognitive ability of face recognition develop with age?
More difficulties recognizing (negative) basic emotions and attention is less eye-focused. The decline in fluid intelligence doesn’t help
What is the direction of the relationship between socioaffective function and cognitive function?
Bidirectional
On which processes does cognition have an influence on socioaffective processing and on which processes does socioaffective processing have an inluence on cognition?
Cognition –> socioaff.
- Emotional (re)appraisals
- Social inferences
Socioaff. –> Cognition
- Attention
- Memory
How does the relationship between socioaffective processing and context develop with age?
Context has a larger influence on elderly, because the socioemotional information can come solely from the environment and they prioritize that type of info
