Ageing Cognitive Development

Ageing Cognitive Development

1. AGE AND MEMORY

   • GLISKY 2007 - memory fundamental source of age related deficits in a variety of cognitive tasks.
     • WORKING MEM. manipulation and integration of ST info
       • prob solving and decision making affected
       • Christopher 2014 - binding visual spatial smell = impaired (harder to organise info
       • PL verbal/speech based - high risk of deficits as task complex and cog demand ^ (Craik, 1986)
       • VSSP - locations and movements/objects and colour - The jigsaw puzzle task (Vecchi + Richardson 2000)
       • CE - attentional control system - task switching - reduced ability to inhibit irrelevant material (Backman + Molander 1986) - Baddeley (1986) prime cause of age rel. decline as frontal lobe location
       • BOPP + VERHAEGHEN 2005 - meta analysis ST mem span test - 7.6/ 7.1 ^diff more complex "Backward Span Procedure = WM impaired
       • INHIBITORY DEFICIT HYPOTH
         • Bowles and Salthouse 2003 - interfere TBR items - fail relevant and irrelevant - capacity
           • Lindenberger, Marsiske + Baltes 2000 - walking whilst memorising = impaired STM and ^complex = ^decline
             • processing of info = age-related decline in STM NOT JUST STORAGE LIMIT (Maylor Vousden + Brown 1999).
               • WHY?
                 • Due to less efficent strategies (Belmont, Freesman + Mitchell 1988)
                   • Chunking experiment
   • LTM due to STM deficits
     • SEMANTIC MEMORY
       • facts/knowledge and information link to crystallised intel.
         • Stuart-Hamiltion (2012) -NOT AFFECTED or better than young
           • Due to: no time + location/freedom from constraint. years/decades to rehearse same fact repeated. memory infrastructure/well-established knowledge
             • Craik et al 1995 - only new semantic mem worse
       • Giambra et al 1995 develop
     • EPISODIC MEMORY
       • personal experiences/specific time loaction
         • sig ageing decline - more complex = distortion as once only events
           • Simons et al 2004 - older adults sig worse remembering specific info - ^info and unique
       • vs SEMANTIC
         • Hough 2006 - preservation S frequently used areas vs specific eg names places
         • S - across cortex E - reliant on hippocampus
       • Kahana et al 2005 - TBR and distractor words = y + o produced distractors but o = worse at identifying dist. = EM decline
   • AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY
     • issue of reliability ^ age
       • Bartlett 1932 - alter story to improve flow Field 1981 - main details accurate but low for peripheral
         • Reminiscence Bump - critical life events. 10-30. supresssion of unpleasant events.
   • PROSPECTIVE MEMORY
     • future plans/learn from past experiences
       • May improve - Poon + Schaffer 1982 - call experiementer mem task
         • ^age = remembered more often due to monetary reward
       • Social importance = more contol less artifical = work own pace (Bailey 2010
     • BUT Maylor - external vs internal cues
       • internal = older worsened perf.

2. AGE AND INTELLIGENCE

   • Gf - solve new prob. -declines mid 20s
     • Rabbitt et al 2004 - decline in measure of vocab task. not Gc
   • Gc -use learned knowledge/exp - rising until 70s
     • like semantic as general knowledge - Salthouse 2009
       • more reliant a skill is the less decline
         • individual differences
           • Rabbitt 1993 - variation effects - test scores ^ older on cog measures. ^ variation with age.

3. BASIC COG FUNCTIONS

   • REACTION TIME
     • Salthouse 1991 - ^ with age. pre motor + motor time
     • Complexity - age diffe ^ with ^ choice reaction tasks
     • LINK TO INTELLIGENCE
       • RT = speed of neurons sending messages INT = usage of messages
         • = decrease RT = decrease intelligence (Salthouse 1985)
     • General Slowing Hypothesis
       • slower neural processing = general decline
       • BRINLEY PLOTS = linear line
         • not universal X
   • PERCEPTION
     • decline in older adults
       • auditory or visual impairments ^ higher demands for compensation
         • = negative affect on other parts eg focused attention
           • can improve with correct training
         • decline in sensory and perceptual abilities = isolation/limit mobility/interaction
           • DRIVIING
             • daily activity - switch attention response to environment HAZARD
   • ATTENTION
     • SELECTIVE ATTENTION
       • Stroop Task -Maylor + Lavie1998 prone to interferance
     • SUSTAINED ATTENTION
       • ability to focus
     • DIVIDED ATTENTION
       • multitasking less able to allocate resources SALTHOUSE 1985 ^demand

4. IMPROVING COG ABILITY IN OLD AGE

   • CHRISTOPHER ET AL 2005 - caffine - reverse low arousal -neuro
     • method of loci - smith et al (1984) berlin streets
       • practice tasks