PSY313 unit test 1 (3)

Question 1

What is cognitive aging?

Answer 1

Cognitive aging refers to how aging affects cognitive processes like thinking, learning, memory, and language use over a person’s lifespan.

Question 2

What cognitive processes are typically studied in cognitive aging research?

Answer 2

Researchers focus on basic processes such as attention and memory, as well as higher-order processes like decision-making, reasoning, and problem-solving.

Question 3

When do cognitive declines typically begin?

Answer 3

Cognitive declines can start as early as the 20s, but these declines are extremely small initially. There is a pattern of stability through middle age, followed by more noticeable declines in old age.

Question 4

How does vocabulary change with age?

Answer 4

Unlike other cognitive abilities, vocabulary tends to increase over time. It starts lower, increases throughout adulthood, and remains relatively stable in older age.

Question 4

Do cognitive declines typically impact daily functioning?

Answer 4

Despite some cognitive declines with age, daily functioning is generally not negatively impacted because routine activities are well-practiced and not cognitively demanding.

Question 4

How does recognition memory change with age?

Answer 4

Recognition memory, the ability to recall past events or information, does not significantly change with age.

Question 4

What is crystallized intelligence, and how does it change with age?

Answer 4

Crystallized intelligence, related to the knowledge base accumulated from life experiences and education, typically increases with age. This is because the longer people live, the more words and experiences they encounter and incorporate into long-term memory.

Question 4

Are there any cognitive abilities that remain stable or increase with age?

Answer 4

Vocabulary is a notable example of a cognitive ability that not only remains stable but can also increase with age due to the continuous accumulation of knowledge and experience.

Question 5

Does sensory memory decline with age?

Answer 5

Sensory memory, which holds unprocessed sensory information briefly, does not reduce with age. This type of memory acts as a temporary buffer for sensory input before it is processed.

Question 5

How do older adults compensate for cognitive declines?

Answer 5

Older adults rely heavily on long-term knowledge and routine to compensate for declines in basic cognitive processes. They adapt by using tools like lists and reminders to manage daily tasks.

Question 6

What role does knowledge play in the daily functioning of older adults?

Answer 6

Knowledge is crucial for daily functioning, helping to boost performance on daily tasks and fill in gaps where cognitive abilities may have declined.

Question 7

What are the two broad approaches to studying cognitive aging?

Answer 7

One approach focuses on specific cognitive areas like attention or working memory to understand individual differences. The other takes a broader view, looking at overall processing changes like speed of processing deficits.

Question 8

How does processing speed affect cognitive aging?

Answer 8

Processing speed decreases with age, which means it may take longer to perform tasks, especially those requiring coordination of multiple cognitive processes. Slower processing speeds can limit the ability to keep up with complex tasks within a given time.

Question 9

What is pseudo processing in the context of cognitive aging?

Answer 9

Pseudo processing is the idea that the slower information processing seen in older adults might not just be about speed. It suggests that older adults might use different ways to think and solve problems that aren’t solely based on how fast they can process information.

Question 10

How does speed of processing change with age?

Answer 10

Speed of processing generally slows down across the board as people age, affecting the ability to perform tasks efficiently.

Question 11

What is the attentional resource theory in cognitive aging?

Answer 11

This theory suggests that as people get older, they have fewer mental resources for focusing and processing information. This makes it harder for them to perform tasks that require a lot of mental effort. The idea is that attention helps us think and accomplish specific goals, but aging reduces how much attention we can use.

Question 12

What does the inhibition deficits theory propose about cognitive aging?

Answer 12

as we age, our brain’s “filter” for blocking out distractions becomes less effective. This makes it harder to focus and remember things, contributing to what we often perceive as memory problems in older age.

Question 13

How do sensory deficits affect perceived cognitive aging?

Answer 13

Sensory deficits, such as changes in color vision due to the yellowing of the lens, can mimic cognitive aging. For example, older adults may show a larger Stroop effect not due to attention deficits but due to less vivid color perception.

( stroop task (participants are told to name the color they see - presented with words that are diff colors - ignore the words name the color) (but the word is a color name etc..)

Question 14

What does an increased Stroop effect in older adults indicate?

Answer 14

Originally thought to reflect attentional deficits, it is now understood that the increased Stroop effect in older adults can be due to perceptual changes like color vision, not cognitive decline.

Question 15

What noncognitive factors influence cognitive aging?

Answer 15

Overall health, motivation (with a shift towards seeking happiness rather than high scores), and metacognitive knowledge (awareness of one’s own cognitive processes) all play roles. Older adults may use fewer cognitive enhancement strategies than younger people.

Question 16

What is attention in cognitive psychology?

Answer 16

Attention is like a spotlight that helps the brain focus on specific tasks or information. It’s important for reaching goals and comes in different forms, which makes it hard to describe simply.

Question 17

What are the three types of attention identified in neuropsychology?

Answer 17

Alerting system: Keeps us awake and aware of stimuli (brain stem area).
Orienting system: Directs our focus to specific stimuli for processing (cortical areas).
Executive system: Controls decision-making on what to attend to based on goals.

Question 18

What are some specific lines of research in visual attention?

Answer 18

Spatial attention: Focuses like a spotlight on different locations.
Feature and object attention: Focuses on a specific object or a feature of an object.

Question 19

What are the cognitive theories regarding different types of attention?

Answer 19

Selective attention: Focusing on one specific thing.
Sustained attention: Maintaining focus over a long period.
Divided attention: Managing attention between multiple stimuli.

Question 20

Which types of attention do not show age-related differences?

Answer 20

Spatial, alerting, and sustained attention do not typically show changes with age.

Question 21

What types of attention are affected by aging?

Answer 21

Selective attention shows some minor changes.
Divided attention and executive attention show noticeable changes, particularly in managing distractions and multitasking.

Question 22

How does automaticity in tasks change with age?

Answer 22

Automaticity, or the ease with which tasks are performed without conscious effort, is reduced with age. More practice is required for a task to become automatic.

Question 23

How is inhibition, a part of executive attention, affected by aging?

Answer 23

Inhibition involves controlling distractions and is a major task of executive attention located in the frontal lobes, which deteriorate with age, explaining reduced performance in older adults.

Question 24

What are the components of Baddeley’s Working Memory Model?

Answer 24

The model includes the Central Executive, Phonological Loop, Visuospatial Sketchpad, and Episodic Buffer. The Central Executive controls and coordinates the other components, which handle auditory storage, visual and spatial manipulation, and temporary storage that integrates information.

Question 25

Central Executive:

Answer 25

The Central Executive is the core component of the model and acts as the control center of working memory. It directs attention and coordinates activities across the other components of working memory. It manages cognitive tasks such as decision-making, problem-solving, and the regulation of both the Phonological Loop and the Visuospatial Sketchpad. It also interacts with long-term memory and is crucial for task switching, updating, and inhibition of responses.

Question 26

Phonological Loop

Answer 26

This component is responsible for dealing with auditory information, whether it comes from external sources (like someone talking) or internal thoughts (like inner speech). It has two subcomponents:
Phonological Store (Inner Ear): Holds information in speech-based form for 1-2 seconds, allowing for brief storage of words and numbers.
Articulatory Control System (Inner Voice): Allows for subvocal rehearsal (silently repeating words to oneself) to keep items in the phonological store from decaying and to transfer them into long-term memory.

Question 27

Visuospatial Sketchpad:

Answer 27

This component handles visual and spatial data. It allows individuals to manipulate and retain images and spatial relationships in mind, useful in tasks such as navigation, geometry, and visual art. It also plays a role in understanding spatial layout and managing visual activities like planning a route or picturing scenes in a story.

Question 28

Episodic Buffer:

Answer 28

a temporary and limited capacity store that integrates information from the Phonological Loop, Visuospatial Sketchpad, and long-term memory into coherent episodes. It also maintains a sense of chronological order or sequence for these events, which is crucial for understanding complex scenarios

Question 29

What are the general functions of memory?

Answer 29

Memory serves the capacity for storing and retrieving information and allows for the manipulation of this information for various cognitive tasks.

Question 30

Which brain structures are crucial for memory?

Answer 30

The hippocampus and surrounding regions are essential for forming new memories and transitioning them from short-term to long-term storage. The frontal lobe is involved in executive functions and working memory, helping to manipulate information.

Question 31

How does dopamine affect memory?

Answer 31

Dopamine influences the encoding and retrieval of memories by affecting reward, motivation, and attention processes.

Question 32

What is the role of acetylcholine in memory?

Answer 32

Acetylcholine enhances alertness and attention, particularly important in the hippocampus for memory formation and consolidation.

Question 33

What is sensory memory and how long does it last?

Answer 33

Sensory memory is the brief storage of sensory information, acting as a buffer for stimuli received through the senses, lasting a few seconds before it decays or is processed further.

Question 34

What is the duration and function of short-term/working memory?

Answer 34

Short-term memory holds information for about 30 seconds in an active, readily available state. Working memory involves the active manipulation of this information for cognitive tasks.

Question 35

How is information transferred to long-term memory?

Answer 35

Information is transferred from short-term to long-term memory primarily through rehearsal, with storage based on meaning and the associative connections between information.

Question 36

What are the types of long-term memory?

Answer 36

: Long-term memory is divided into explicit (episodic and semantic) and implicit (procedural and priming). Episodic memory involves specific events, semantic memory involves facts and knowledge, procedural memory involves skills, and priming involves unconscious influences on thoughts and behaviors.

Question 37

How does memory change with age according to the diagram?

Answer 37

With aging, there are declines in short-term and working memory, attention, and mental flexibility due to neurotransmitter changes. Sensory memory processes rapidly decay after stimulus perception. Long-term memory is passed from short-term memory via rehearsal, primarily based on meaning and association.

Question 38

What aspects of memory are relatively spared with increasing age?

Answer 38

Implicit and procedural memories remain stable; the ability to learn new things stays constant, assuming no age-related brain diseases. Semantic memory, such as vocabulary, often increases or stays stable with age

Question 39

What is the reminiscence bump?

Answer 39

The reminiscence bump is an increased autobiographical recall for events that occurred during adolescence and early adulthood, typically observed in individuals over 50.

Question 40

How is working memory performance affected by aging?

Answer 40

Aging most significantly impacts working memory, particularly the ability to perform tasks requiring simultaneous storage and processing

Question 41

What role does the central executive play in the aging of working memory?

Answer 41

: The central executive’s ability to process information, coordinate tasks, and maintain attention declines with age.

Question 42

What are common problems with episodic memory in older adults?

Answer 42

Older adults often face difficulties with the retrieval of episodic memories, not encoding. Issues include omissions (forgetting parts of an event), intrusions (recalling unwanted memories), and repetitions (repeating stories),

Question 43

How does aging affect autobiographical memories that require contextual processing?

Answer 43

Aging reduces the ability to process contextual information, leading to source monitoring errors (misattributing the origin of a memory) and the creation of false memories.

Question 44

How does aging affect contextual processing in memory?

Answer 44

Aging impacts the hippocampus and frontal lobes, crucial for processing contextual information and episodic memory retrieval. Both areas show volume reductions with age, affecting how details are integrated into memories.

Question 45

What is the basic concept behind cognitive training?

Answer 45

Cognitive training is based on the idea that practicing specific tasks can enhance one’s ability in those tasks. The broader research question is whether this improvement translates to an overall enhancement in cognitive abilities, such as working memory or even IQ.

Question 46

What is the difference between near transfer and far transfer in cognitive training?

Answer 46

Near transfer occurs when improvement in a trained task leads to improvement in a similar task (e.g., two types of working memory tasks). Far transfer refers to training gains that extend to different cognitive functions (e.g., from memory tasks to higher IQ).

Question 47

How effective is cognitive training across different age groups?

Answer 47

Research suggests that younger adults may experience greater benefits from cognitive training compared to older adults. Older adults generally show improvements, but these are often less significant and shorter-lived.

Question 48

What does research say about the duration of cognitive training effects?

Answer 48

Most studies find that the effects of cognitive training can last up to six months, with short-term effects being the most consistent. Long-term sustainability of these effects varies and generally fades over time.

Question 49

Which factors influence the outcome of cognitive training?

Answer 49

Outcomes vary by several factors, including the individual’s age, baseline cognitive performance, IQ, educational background, and socioeconomic status. Generally, those with higher baseline capabilities or socioeconomic status benefit more from training.

Question 50

What is the ACTIVE program, and what were its findings?

Answer 50

The ACTIVE program was a longitudinal study investigating if cognitive performance can be maintained with training over time. It included different training groups (memory, reasoning, speed of processing) and a control group. Results over a 10-year follow-up showed that while some training benefits were observed, they were not long-lived across all groups.