Lecture 3: Normal Cognitive Aging

Question 1

What is Crystallized intelligence?

Answer 1

cumulative abilities built up over time; general knowledge, vocabulary
based on fact/experience, you already know it

Question 2

What is Fluid intelligence?

Answer 2

require flexibility of cognitive processing at time of test; processing speed, attention, task switching

Question 3

How might crystallized/fluid abilities confound measurement of cognitive performance in other domains?

Answer 3

our fluid intelligence peaks when we are younger and steadily declines with age and our crystallized intelligence peaks later in life and remains relatively stable

Question 4

what is a T-score

Answer 4

is equivalent to the number of standard deviations away from the mean of the t-distribution.

Question 5

What is processing speed?

Answer 5

the amount of time it take to perceive information, process information and formulate/enact a response
processing speed declines steeply from early in life

Question 6

What is Sustained attention (vigilance)?

Answer 6

our ability to focus on a particular section of the environment in order to ascertain whether changes occur that might require our interventation
ie: listing to a lecture, reading a book

Question 7

Selective Attention

Answer 7

the process of directing our awareness to relevant stimuli while ignoring irrelevant stimuli in the environment; Flanker task (target stimulus in the center surrounded by non-target stimuli, and the individual is required to press the left or right arrow key based on the direction of the target)

Question 8

What is divided attention?

Answer 8

refers to the performance of two or more tasks at the same time; carrying a conversation while driving a car; talking while talking task (participants are instructed to walk while reciting ;enters of the alphabet and reciting alternate letters of the alphabet

Question 9

What are the effects of aging on Sustained attention?

Answer 9

largely preserved

Question 10

What are the effects of aging on Selective attention?

Answer 10

Declines in aging

Question 11

What are the effects of aging on Divided attention?

Answer 11

declines in aging

Question 12

What is short term memory?

Answer 12

holding information in mind; relatively preserved in normal aging

Question 13

What is working memory?

Answer 13

holding information in mind and manipulating it; declines in aging

Question 14

What is delayed free recall?

Answer 14

spontaneous retrieval of
information from
memory without a cue; recalling a list of items to purchase without a cue

Question 15

What is source memory?

Answer 15

knowing where you learned information

Question 16

What is prospective memory?

Answer 16

remembering to perform intended acton in the future; remembering to take medicine before
going to bed;

Question 17

What sis temporal order memory?

Answer 17

memory for the correct time or sequence of
past events
e.g., Remembering that last Saturday you went
to the grocery store after you ate lunch with
your friends

Question 18

What is procedural memory?

Answer 18

memory for the correct time or sequence of
past events
e.g., Remembering that last Saturday you went
to the grocery store after you ate lunch with
your friends

Question 19

What memory declines with age?

Answer 19

delayed free recall, source memory and prospective memory

Question 20

What memory remans stable with age?

Answer 20

recognition memory, temporal order memory, procedural memory

Question 21

What is recognition memory?

Answer 21

ability to retrieve information when given a cue
* e.g., Correctly giving the details of a story when given yes/no questions
* e.g., multiple choice questions!

Question 22

What are involved in our executive funtions:

Answer 22

organizational - attention, planning, sequencing, problem-solving, working memory, cognitive flexibility, abstract thinking, rule acquisition, selecting relevant sensory information
Regulation – initiation of action, self-control,
emotional regulation, monitoring internal and
external stimuli, initiating and inhibiting context-specific behavior, moral reasoning, decision- making
* Associated with the frontal lobes
Image from https://simplypsychology.org/

Question 23

How is the executive function in older adults?

Answer 23

they experience loss of frontal lobe function
* are reliably impaired on neuropsychological tests of executive function
* e.g, on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test older people achieve fewer
categories and make a greater number of perseverative errors than young
people
* This pattern of impairment is also shown by prefrontal lesion patients
However:
* some studies do not show these effects, possibly reflecting variation in frontal
lobe capacity
* Also, poor performance on cognitive tests does not necessarily predict poor
function in practical situations:
* Older adults who exhibit impairment on clinical and laboratory executive tests
are often very good at planning, strategizing, and problem solving in the real
world.

Question 24

What is language?

Answer 24

a complex cognitive domain composed of both crystallized and fluid
cognitive abilities
Overall, language ability remains intact with aging
Vocabulary remains stable and even
improves over time.
* Semantic memory (knowledge about
words and objects) also remains stable
or improves.
* Visual confrontation naming is stable
until around age 70, and then declines
* Verbal fluency also shows decline with
aging