Attention & Problem Solving

selectively focus

older adults are less able to _________ on information while ignoring distractor

shifting

greater difficulty _____________ their attention between objects or location

interpersonal problem solving

older adults use more effective strategies to navigate through social and emotional problems

cognitive decline

compensated by older adults with more efficient strategies and relying on expertiese

input from others

relied on by older adults to resolve everyday problems

processing speed theory

theory suggesting that as the nervous system slow w/ age = ability to process info declines

processing speed theory

theory may explain age difference on many different cognitive tasks

inhibition theory

theory that argues that older adults have difficulty w/ inhibitory functioning

inhibitory functioning

ability to focus on certain information while suppressing attention to less pertinent information tasks

inhibition theory

theory's evidences comes from directed forgetting research

directed forgetting

people are asked to forget or ignore some information, but not other information

list A

when asked to memorize list A, then asked to forget, then memorize list B, older adults more likely to recall words from list ???

exaggerated cognitive losses

happens to older adults since the type of tasks that were tested on researches are meaningless

exaggerated cognitive losses

happens to older adults due to research often being cross-sectional

exaggerated cognitive losses

happens to older adults due to them not having the opportunity to use various skills

practiced skills

older adults performed as well as when they were young