Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognitive Aging Flashcards

Flashcards on Cognitive Aging

Which memory system supports "knowing how" but is NOT hippocampally-dependent?

Procedural memory, also known as implicit, nondeclarative, or unconscious memory.

What is true about semantic memory regarding the anterior temporal lobe?

Semantic memory is associated with increased gray matter volume and white matter integrity in the anterior temporal lobe.

What type of memory is required to remember where you learned a piece of information?

Recollection

How does degraded sensory input affect the transfer of information from sensory to short-term memory in older adults?

Degraded sensory input primarily interferes with the transfer of information from sensory to short-term memory.

What type of paradigm involves distinguishing between new, similar, and same objects?

Item specificity

In attention studies, which network shows the most consistent age-related impairments?

Executive function network

Age-related attention impairments are primarily driven by difficulty with what?

"Dimming down" the background (inhibition issues).

Which component of working memory tasks are most affected by age-related impairments?

Tasks rely on the short-term storage component.

What type of interference causes you to enter your old password instead of your new password?

Proactive interference.

What process is required to focus on a quiz amidst distractions?

Top-down attention

In what type of memory is information initially stored?

Sensory memory

What allows some information from sensory memory to be transferred to the next stage of memory?

Attention

What is the phenomenon called when two patients (HM and MS) have distinct patterns of memory impairment?

Double dissociations

What is the primary difference between semantic and episodic memory?

Semantic memory involves retrieval of facts, while episodic memory involves retrieval of specific events.

Retrieval of specific events requires what ability?

Recollection

What brain structure's atrophy may be related to age-related impairments in working memory?

Anterior temporal lobe (ATL).

Which pathway and type of compensation are associated with the semantic network in younger older adults, and what is the typical cognitive outcome?

I) Dorsal Pathway (top-down); II) Compensation by selection; III) Usually favorable outcome

Which pathway and type of compensation are associated with the phonological network in younger older adults, and what is the typical cognitive outcome?

I) Ventral pathway (bottom-up); II) Compensation by dedifferentiation; III) Usually favorable outcome

How is the domain-general network recruited in older older adults, and what type of compensation and cognitive outcome are associated with it?

I) Communication between dorsal and ventral pathways; II) More activation seen across the brain; III) Compensation by dedifferentiation; IV) Outcomes vary.

What age range is associated with the reminiscence bump?

10-30

What was increased in old-old participants and associated with increased susceptibility to phishing scams?

Increased insula size

What contributed to incorrect recognition of a key, unheard word in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm?

Gist-based processing and Semantic activation

What 2 brain parts does recollection rely on?

Recollection relies on intact function of the Hippocampus where item and context are bound together. Familiarity can be supported by the Parahippocampal Gyrus that provide memory signal for item and context separately.

The medial prefrontal cortex is NOT involved in which processes?

Behavioral research suggests that older adults exhibit the least consistent impairments in the Source Component of prospective memory.

True or False: Aging is associated with decreased recruitment of the hippocampus during memory tasks and offline rest periods.

False

Define age prospective memory paradox.

Older adults exhibit significant prospective memory deficits in the lab, but not in real-life situations.

True or False: Age-related reliance on familiarity increases susceptibility to the illusory truth effect in the absence of expertise.

False

True or False: Age-related decreases in cognitive pragmatics may contribute to changes in decision making.

True

What is called the type of autobiographical memory retrieval in which individuals traverse the hierarchy of autobiographical knowledge?

Generative retrieval

Which type of autobiographical memory retrieval do older adults show greater impairments with?

Generative retrieval

What theory explains the positivity effect in older adults.

Socio-emotional selectivity Theory

What is the ERP component that reflects the prospective component of prospective memory?

The N300

According to the ERP, is age associated with changes to the P1?

NO

According to the ERP, is age associated with changes to the N300?

IS

Describe one way in which relying on gist processing during memory retrieval can be beneficial.

Prioritizing gist could be a sign of older adults prioritizing relevant/important information. Gist processing allows older adults to move more "wise".

What is a specific example where reliance on semantic knowledge contributed to age-related changes?

Older adults are more susceptible to fake news than younger adults due to the illusory truth effect. They rely on shallow processing and what sounds familiar, not on the source or context.

Define role of semantic knowledge in the example about fake news.

Semantic knowledge of personal beliefs and gist processing of what sounds familiar is used to recall information instead of remembering episodic/source memory.

Did Dr. Brads null-findings conclude Dr. Poppy should stop her cross-sectional study?

NO. Because Cross sectional studies allow us to study age and takes less time to show results, and rule out cohort or practice effects quickly.

What technique should a researcher use to test if activation will occur 100-200ms faster in a cognitive training group compared to a control group?

Event-Related Potentials

What term refers to dynamic preservation of neural resources that engages mechanisms of repair in response to ongoing damage?

Reserve

Age-related dedifferentiation has been demonstrated by examining brain regions that are preferentially recruited for specific stimuli and finding what?

Both attenuation of signal to preferred stimuli and broadening of signal to non-preferred stimuli in these regions

In studies examining sensory and perception, what do older adults tend to exhibit?

Greater absolute and differential thresholds

What hypothesis explains that age-related hearing loss is associated with impaired cognition due to the cortical reorganization that supports auditory perception in the face of degraded input?

Sensory deprivation

What pattern is predicted by CRUNCH (Compensatory Recruitment Utilization)?

Older adults' increased recruitment is associated with enhanced performance for less difficult tasks but not more difficult tasks

When comparing patients diagnosed with mild AD from clinical behavioral measures, how will education affect AD pathology?

Patients with more years of education will have less AD pathology, but this is FALSE.

Describe Compensation by Selection

Older adults recruit a process, available to young adults, that is easier but perhaps not as useful to the task, but this is FALSE.

What is reduced sharpness and acuity in visual processing in older adults known as?

Presbyopia NOT Presbyeusis.

What does traditional univariate BOLD studies examine?

Patterns of activation in selected ROIs

What effect is age-related hearing loss connected to?

Age-related hearing loss is associated with increased recruitment of the auditory cortex and decreased connectivity between the auditory cortex and attention and visual processing networks

If Participants in a study recruit the amygdala during an autobiographical memory task and are more likely to report positive memories, what bias can they be experiencing?

Simpson's Paradox

What is the age-realted phenomenon that suggests that it is not universal?

Age-related dedifferentiation in the anterior temporal lobe during perception and memory

Which model should be used In understanding age and memory?

Researchers correlated that hippocampus increases volume and gives greater momory function when younger

For Alzheimer's, what is the earliest identifiable change?

Synaptic dysfunction

How were the nuns in the studied cohort during the nun study affected?

Reduced clinical symptoms than would be expected based on pathology

Why is the Twice-minus-once-tested method in the Salthouse, 2014 study important?

Differentiated between effects of practice and cohort

What does Fractional anisotropy measure?

Represents the integrity of white matter tracts in the brain

Which neural region most strongly mediated the effect of age on cognitive scores in the Rangus et al., 2024 article?

Prefrontal cortex

What process has been proven resilient in individuals with Alzheimer's?

Language

How does Socioemotional selectivity theory explain older adults motivations?

Tendency for older adults to shift their motivation toward maintaining mood and affective goals, but this is FALSE.

The transition to older individuals from pyramid to pillar symbolizes

gerontological Explosion

The main reaosn researchers can't analyze samples from older adults stems from issues with

Selection Bias

The method that allows scientists to measure time using rebound and RF pulses involves analyzing brain tissue through

Magnetic resonance imaging

While taking a quiz, a siren goes off in the street outside, so you look out the window. Focusing on the quiz requires you to use what type of process?

Top-down attention