Chapter Twenty Four

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Chapter Twenty Four

• Late Adulthood
• Cognitive Development

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Changes in Information Processing

• Schaies study found decline in
• verbal meaning
• spatial orientation
• inductive reasoning
• number ability
• word fluency

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• Sensory Register
• stores incoming sensory information for a split
  second after it is received, to be selectively
  processed
• It takes longer for information to register
• Can be compensated for
• Sensory receptors (eyes, ears, etc.- not as acute
  as earlier in life)

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• Working Memory
• processing component through which current,
  conscious mental activity occurs
• Two interrelated functions
• temporary information storage
• process information

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• Older adults have smaller working memory capacity
  than younger adults
• Helps to provide additional time to analyze
  information

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• Long Term Memory
• Knowledge Base
• Long-term storehouse of information and memories
• Consists of two subcomponents
• Implicit and Explicit Memory
• Explicit memory ? involves words, data and
  concepts, etc. Is easy to retrieve
• Implicit memory ? information that is an
  unconscious or automatic memory such as habits,
  emotional responses, sensations and routines

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• Other Aspects of Cognition
• Control Processes
• memory strategies, retrieval strategies and
  rule-of-thumb that aid problem solving
• Older adults use simpler, less efficient control
  processes to remember new information
• On other control processes than memory, older
  adults are more similar to younger adults

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Reasons for Age-Related Changes

• Neurophysiological or biological
• Stereotyping
• Self-perceptions of cognitive abilities
• May end up handicapping themselves
• Problems with Laboratory Research
• Priming is not available
• Do not reflect difference in context and
  motivation

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• Changes in the Brain
• Fewer neurons, slower reaction ? begins to slow
  in the late 50s
• Too fast to comprehend ? speed is often related
  to intelligence
• Thinking becomes slower and simpler
• Brain Compensation
• As some brain cells die, others take over the
  tasks, dendrites continue to grow
• Stem cells of brain can create new neurons

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Cognition in Daily Life

• Memory Losses in Daily Life
• disadvantages because of speed
• priming
• motivation is critical
• Slowing Down the Slowdown
• Use of new techniques to access knowledge base
• Regular exercise improves blood flow to brain
• Cognitive stimulation can cause dendrites to
  develop new connections

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Dementia

• ? severely impaired thinking, memory or
  problem-solving ability

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• Alzheimers Disease
• Disorder characterized by proliferation of
  certain abnormalities in the cerebral cortex,
  called plaques and tangles that destroy normal
  brain functioning
• No matter what the age, brain damage takes the
  same form, and the amount of plaques and tangles
  correlate not with age, but the degree of
  intellectual impairment before death

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• If it appears in middle age it runs its course in
  3-5 years
• If it appears in late adulthood it will take 10
  years to run its course
• It is partially genetic, allele of gene apoE4
• 20 inherit this from one parent, and so have a
  50-50 chance of having it
• Allele apoE2 is protective
• Up to 10 of people have this

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• Stages of Alzheimers
• Stage 1- general forgetfulness
• Stage 2- more general confusion noticeable
  differences in concentration and short term
  memory, can be aimless or repetitive in
  conversation
• Stage 3- memory loss becomes truly dangerous and
  people are no longer able to take care of their
  basic needs

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• Stage 4- need full-time care and cannot care for
  themselves or respond normally
• Occasionally irrationally angry or paranoid
• Stage 5- completely mute and die in this stage

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• Current Outlook
• Difficult for the family to cope with-
  frustration
• No cure, but scientists are learning how to
  postpone or slow the course of AD

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• Many Strokes
• Multi-Infarct Dementia
• responsible for 15 of dementia cases and in
  combination with Alzheimers accounts for another
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• Temporary obstruction of blood vessels prevents a
  sufficient supply of blood to brain ? commonly
  called a stroke or ministroke
• Common cause is arteriosclerosis
• Progression is different ? immediate drop, then
  some improvement

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• Subcortical Dementia
• Parkinsons disease
• related to degeneration of neurons in area of
  brain that produces dopamine, a neurotransmitter
  essential to normal brain functioning
• Other Diseases
• Toxins and infectious agents such as AIDS,
  syphilis

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• Reversible Dementia
• Medication and Malnutrition
• Alcohol
• Psychological Illness
• Depression

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New Cognitive Development in Later Life

• Life Review
• Examination of life
• Helps come to grips with aging and death
• Aesthetic Sense

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• Wisdom
• rich factual knowledge of human experience
• practical and procedural knowledge about
  conditions of life
• contextual approach to understanding life
  holistically
• acceptance of uncertainty and unpredictability in
  life

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• recognition of individual differences,
  flexibility
• Spiritual Values