week 4

Question 1

what is the common cause hypothesis?

Answer 1

link between sensory processes and cognitive functioning becomes stronger in older adulthood

Question 2

define threshold

Answer 2

minimum amount of stimulation a sensory organ must receive before the presence of a stimulus is registered

Question 3

define sensitivity

Answer 3

capability of biological system to respond to stimulation. inverse of threshold - greater sensitivity to a particular type of stimulation, the lower the threshold will be

Question 4

define absolute threshold

Answer 4

intensity of stimulation needed in order for a stimulus to be detected 50% of the time when it is present

Question 5

what is the signal detection model?

Answer 5

used to determine the threshold. takes sensitivity and decisional response criteria. important because adults tend to be more cautious and this can inflate estimates of age-related differences

Question 6

what are the categories of reaction time tasks?

Answer 6

simple: only one stimulus and one possible response

choice: two different stimuli, each requiring a different response

complex: more than 2 stimuli, each requiring a different response or combination of responses.

Question 7

what are the two components of reaction time? describe them

Answer 7

premotor time (PMT): time elapsed between onset of stimulus and the initiation of a motor response

motor time (MT): time elapsed from the initiation to the completion of a motor response

Question 8

what is the age-complexity hypothesis?

Answer 8

older adults will be at a greater disadvantage relative to young adults as task complexity increases. some believe that age-related differences in reaction time are related to age-related decline in the brain’s speed of processing information or a general slowing in cognitive processing

Question 9

what is the stimulus persistence theory

Answer 9

theoretical model that attempts to explain why central slowing occurs

stimulus registered by a sensory organ takes longer to be processed and cleared through the nervous system of an older adult. if a second stimulus were to follow quickly, then older adults will be less efficient at processing it because they are still clearing the first stimulus through the system

older adults need more time between stimuli than young adults do - otherwise sequential stimuli may blend together and be perceived as on

Question 10

why may pain go unreported?

Answer 10

with regard to pain, measuring responsiveness is complex, as individuals vary not only in their sensitivity but also in their willingness to report it.

older adults who experience pain from a chronic condition may have less reserve capacity for coping with additional pain from acute sources compared with young adults who are otherwise in relatively good health.

it can be difficult to assess pain in older adults with dementia, who are limited in their ability to report the nature and extent of any pain they are experiencing

older adults may have a different criterion from young adults for reporting the point at which they feel pain.

Question 11

describe rate of falls among older adults

Answer 11

in any given year, more than one-third of people over age 65 experience a fall, and the incidence is even higher among the very old

Question 12

what is presbycusis

Answer 12

presbycusis is a pattern of hearing loss associated with aging that is characterized by an increased threshold for high-frequency tones

older adults with presbycusis have trouble understanding speech in noisy conditions. They experience greater difficulty than young adults do with understanding speech against a background of noise or of “babble” from one or numerous other talkers

Question 13

what are strategies listeners can use in language processing when they have difficulty hearing?

Answer 13

a combination of bottom-up and top-down strategies in language processing.

a bottom-up strategy calls for registering and processing the details of the sensory-perceptual input.

a top-down strategy uses contextual information about the semantic (word meaning) and syntactic (grammatical) structure of language as well as its prosodic features (intonation, stress, and timing)

Question 14

what is the communication predicament of aging model

Answer 14

whereby the speaker’s patronizing manner of communication imposes unnecessary constraints on interactions with an older adult, with the result that both the speaker and the older listener find the exchange to be unsatisfactory.

The unfortunate outcome is that both speaker and listener tend to avoid communicating with one another on future occasion

Question 15

what are the theoretical models related to age and attention. describe them

Answer 15

reduced attentional resources/capacity model: quantity of processing resources declines with increasing age
- complex tasks may exceed older adult’s capacity, thus rendering them less efficient and/or less accurate than young adults, who have sufficient resources to handle the demands of complex tasks

inhibitory deficit model: aging is associated with a decrease in the ability to ignore irrelevant stimuli (distractors) and focus attention on relevant stimuli - related to age-complexity hypothesis

frontal lobe model: frontal lobes are more susceptible than other regions of the brain to the effects of normal aging

Question 16

what are the 3 categories of attention task

Answer 16

sustained (aka vigilance): monitoring a situation and remaining ready to detect any change that occurs in a pattern of stimuli that is usually stable and unchanging.

divided: attention must be paid to more than one thing at a time, or when two or more stimulus inputs must be processed concurrently

selective: out of all stimuli, we focus out attention on what is most relevant to us. paying attention to some information, while ignoring other information
- According to the inhibitory deficit model, older adults have particular difficulty in selectively focusing on relevant stimuli and ignoring irrelevant distracting stimuli. Inefficient inhibition allows irrelevant stimuli to intrude, which causes errors in processing the relevant stimuli or just slows down processing altogether.

Question 17

how is the SOC model used in sensory processes?

Answer 17

older adults adjust as they adapt to potential or actual changes in their sensory and perceptual capabilities

Question 18

how is the ecological model used in sensory processes?

Answer 18

would stress the importance of an appropriate match between older adults’ sensory and perceptual capabilities and the level of sensory and perceptual challenge in the environment.