PSY2004 SEMESTER 1 - WEEK 3

Question 1

define neuroplasticity

Answer 1

capacity of nervous system to modify its organisation to altered demands and environments

Question 2

what is Baltes model

Answer 2

cultural/environmental factors become less important to biological factors in terms of explaining age-related changes in cognition

Question 3

outline common cause hypothesis

Answer 3

age-related decline in cognitive and sensorimotor function is due to deterioration of common neurological processes (domain-general mechanism)

Question 4

how does sensorimotor ability indicate biological integrity of brain as a strong predictor for cognitive declines

Answer 4

all age differences in WM, EM explained by sensorimtor function
because of fluctuation of sensorimotor abilities increaes with age, this neurological deterioration and its correlation with cognitive ability increases with age

Question 5

what did Lindenberger & Baltes show regarding sensorimotor functioning and age-impact on intelligence

Answer 5

controlling for sensorimotor functioning (vision, hearing, balance, gait) reduced age-intelligence relation (reasoning, knowledge, etc) to null

Question 6

what is the sensory deprivation theory

Answer 6

declining sensory acuity creates communication and mobility difficulties, increasing likelihood of social withdrawal and disengagement from intellectually stimulating activities which could have knock-on effects on cognitive ability over extended period

Question 7

what is cognitive load on sensory performance theory (opposite to sensory deprivation theory)

Answer 7

this causal direction works in reverse
deficit cog ability adversely affects sensorimotor function
eg; deficits sustained attention diminishes capacity to detect auditory/visual stimuli
relationship may be bidirectional even if Lindenberger & Baltes presented evidence for other direction
increase social withdrawal, reduced participation in mentally stimulating activity

Question 8

difference between longitudinal and cross-sectional studies on sensory, cognitive decline presentations

Answer 8

longitudinal shows more modest associations between rate of sensory and cognitive decline, provide support for role of domain-specific factors
cross-sectional accentuates this relationship

Question 9

give a broad overview of relationship between age and sleep

Answer 9

negative relationship is seen between age and sleep (older, less time asleep)

Question 10

what is WASO

Answer 10

waking up after sleep onset

Question 11

what do older people do in sleep

Answer 11

sleep less, awaken more, increased WASO, decreased SWS and activity in PFC, less spindle density, unchanged REM but decreased phasic REM

Question 12

what was Rasch (2007) study into sleep and memory games

Answer 12

play memory games before sleep, presented with odour (roses) during learning
memory improved when representing odour during SWS vs control. no difference in other experiment not presenting odour
evidence for SWS in LTM consols

Question 13

explain hippocampal-neocortical dialogue during sleep

Answer 13

reactivations associated with sharp wave ripples driven by SWS oscillations, syncrhronising hippocampal memory reactivations with sleep spindle
SWS= repeated activation of recently learned info in hippocampus, helps consolidation

Question 14

apply hippocampal-neocortical dialogue to older people learning

Answer 14

less SWS, so less activation in hippocampus to consolidate newly learned info
change to HPA axis, increased evening cortisol level, when low cortisol level needed for memory consolidation in sleep
high cortisol means impacts high number of cortisol receptors in hippocampus, impairing transfer into LTM storage

Question 15

compare rate of forgetting after sleep between OA, YA

Answer 15

rate of forgetting greatly reduced in YA, but OA shows no difference between those who slept and those awake

Question 16

apply morningness-eveningness questionnaire to OA

Answer 16

YA prefer TOD afternoon/evening
OA peak arousal is in morning

Question 17

explain rough relationships for exercise and cognitive abilities

Answer 17

modest but significant correlations between exercise and cog ability independent of other factors, but adding education to model substantially diminished effect

Question 18

what are issues with correlational studies of physical exercise impacting on cognitive abilities

Answer 18

inherent assumption physical activity will cause improvement to cognitive ability but not clear if that is direction (those with high cognitive ability chooses to do more physical etc), does not disambiguate direction of physical-cognitive relationship

Question 19

how can interventions for physical activity be created

Answer 19

define a control, and treatment group
eg; cardiovascular fitness, resistance, both
better to use passive control group eg, stretching

Question 20

name 4 different aspect of cognitive task

Answer 20

1. executive task
2. controlled task
3. spatial task
4. speed task

Question 21

name characteristics of cognitive executive task

Answer 21

planning, inhibition, scheduling mental procedure eg: Flanker task

Question 22

give example of cognitive controlled tasks

Answer 22

choice reaction time

Question 23

name example of cognitive spatial task

Answer 23

transform or remember visuospatial info, Benton task

Question 24

give example of cognitive speed task

Answer 24

simple reaction times

Question 25

explain results of meta-analysis of physical exercises impact for executive, controlled, spatial, speed cognition

Answer 25

impacted executive most, then controlled and spatial, then speed

Question 26

what brain plastic changes occur with aerobic exercise

Answer 26

increased vol in gray and white matter in OA
(anterior cingulate cortex, supplementary motor cortex, left superior temporal gyrus, right inferior frontal gyrus, anterior white matter)

Question 27

what part of brain shows best effect from physical exercise

Answer 27

areas suffereing effects of age, increased hippocampal volume by 2%, associated improvements in spatial memory due to increased blood flow, O2 delivery so prompt structural, funcitonal change

Question 28

what impact can regular physical exercise have on mental health

Answer 28

self esteem, self concept, coping with stress, positive social interaction, feelings of control and competency

Question 29

what health issues can physical activity reduce

Answer 29

cardiovascular disease, stroke, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, causing dementia

Question 30

apply ageing in real world to workplace

Answer 30

more workstations space, more time, louder isntruction and visual aid, longer break, less need of fine motor skills, increased technology, less heavy lifting, awareness training

Question 31

what is hippcampus involved in, and what can increased gray matter cause

Answer 31

spatial nav and memory, training causes less loss and improved acquisitions of new language

Question 32

how can reorganisation of somatosensory and auditory cortex help in congenitally blind

Answer 32

enhance sensorimotor and auditory skills, and compensatory behaviour

Question 33

whats maladaptive neuroplasticity

Answer 33

reorganisation in frontal and hippocampal regions = addiction, phantom limb and tinnitus

Question 34

name issues of cross-sectional research for physical activities

Answer 34

difficult for ineference for causal relationships
third variable problem= education, SES, health conscious lifestyle
objective and self-reported studies
ignores non-physical leisure time

Question 35

what was Richards middle age study show

Answer 35

exercise age 36-43 slower memory decline than age 43-53
continuous exercise needed in maintaining cognitive capacities
gray matter volume in frontal larger for exercise x2 per week

Question 36

what was a positive correlation age 18 found

Answer 36

between cardiovas fitness and intelligence, associated with higher academics

Question 37

what is selective improvement hypothesis in exercise

Answer 37

effects of 6 month aerobic exercise training compared to stretching
increased performance on exec control tasks, and counteract hippoc vol loss

Question 38

why is VO2 beneficial for cognitive abilities

Answer 38

increased blood flows, nutrition supply, neurogenesis, synaptogenesis

Question 39

why is location of exercising important

Answer 39

sensory stimulation