Sect 2, Conundrum 8 William and Mary Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive functions ______ with age

decline

what is the ‘use it or lose it’ hypothesis?

the idea that actively using your mind will reduce the cognitive decline that occurs naturally with aging

Brain Changes Associated with Aging:

• While matter decrease

• Grey matter decrease

• Reductions in the sizes of areas in the brain important for memory functions (hippocampus, medial-temporal cortex, prefrontal cortex)

• Dopamine loss

• Reduction in asymmetry of brain activity across the two hemispheres

what does ‘white matter' refer to?

long range myelinated axons of neurons that connect grey matter areas and the senses

what is ‘grey matter’ composed of?

nerve cell bodies and dendrites

What is speed of processing?

the time it takes to perform low level cognitive processing

speed of processing may underlie what?

memory deficits

Craik and McDowd (1987) found differences in decline when comparing explicit and implicit memories and explained it how?

that there is a difference in terms of a reduced availability of cognitive resources as we age

most cognitive aging research has focused on what kind of design?

cross-sectional

Fleishman’s short term (4 year) longitudinal study found what?

explicit memory performance declined over the time period but implicit memory performance did not

Salthouse (2006) suggests what is not possible with cross-sectional research?

discriminating ‘differential preservation’ and ‘preserved-differentiation’

Salthouse suggests what about individual differences in memory decline?

the mean performance on memory tasks will decrease with age but the variability in performance across individuals actually increases with age

Sensory acuity has very similar decline patterns to?

memory processing, reasoning, and other high-level cognitive processes

Why might sensory decline be driving cognitive decline?

1. accurate sensory input is important to higher cognitive processing

2. loss in sensory sensitivity requires more additional cognitive resources for low level processing and thus less resources for higher cognitive functions

3. maybe a ‘common cause’ underlies all of the sensory and cognitive declines, such as poorer dopaminergic functioning that leads to poorer attentional control for all of these functions

Neural explanations for why Speed of Processing information is decreasing with age

1. diffuse cell loss leading to lengthier and less efficient neural pathways

2. decrease in active synapses between neurons

3. decrease in dendritic connections between neurons

4. loss of myelin that is important for rapid transmission of neural information along lengthy axons

5. the reduction in neurotransmitter causes loss in neural synchronization

What does Miyake (2000) say are the 3 executive functions?

• inhibition

• task-switching

• updating working memory

what is central executive?

component of working memory that also relates to teh concept of executive functions identified by clinical neuropsychologists who were assessing cognitive loss resulting from brain damage to the frontal cortex

What are some tasks that measure individual differences in executive functions?

• letter memory task (updating working memory)

• color-shape task (task switching)

• anti-sacade task (inhibitory control)

majority of cognitive aging research has relied on what?

clinical neuropsychology measures of executive functions that are used to assess frontal cortex damage

What does Stern suggest about finding individuals with significant neuropathology (ex, Alzheimers) that do not show clear indicatiors of cognitive decline?

indiviudals have superior brain and cognitive reserves that allow them to live normal lievs while experiencing significant neural damage to the brain

what do ‘brain reserves’ relate to?

physical aspects of the brain, such as characteristics (ex, larger is better)

what can increase brain reserves (physical brain health)?

physical and mental exercise

what do ‘cognitive reserves’ relate to?

the neural reserve (efficiency or capctity of brain) and neural compensation (utilizing alt brain regions)

how to improve cognitive reserves?

focus on ways of making the brain more efficient or encouraging the brain to utilize alternative regions to compensate for brain changes with aging

While Wilson (2009) did not find results that suggest that education affects decline_________…

other studies do

There are correlational studies that found relationships between _________….

having a cognitively engaged lifestyle and reduced cognitive decline from aging

Ybarra found what correlates with working memory performance in the elderly?

the number of social interactions they experience

mental training is ______ when looking for preventing decline

pretty iffy

what is the compensation hypothesis?

increased bilateral activation shown by some elderly participants as they age reflects the recruitment of additional regions (contralateral hemisphere) to compensate for brain changes in the focalized region of the brain in one particular hemisphere that normally plays an important role in performing that cognitive task

What did Reuter-Lorenz (2002) find?

elderly participants who showed bilateral activation during a working memory task performed better on this task tham elderly participants who showed unilateral activation

Developing cognitive interventions that facilitate _______ as people age could possibly aid in reducing the declien in memory associated with aging

bilateral recruitment

Why is exergaming good?

provides physical and cognitive training for the player, and benefits teh brain and cognitive reserves