Cognitive Middle and Late

Cognitive Adult Tests (Horn and Patel)

WASC - classified into two forms

fluid and crystallized intelligence

• cross sectional study - fluid

  • intelligence declines with age

• longtitudinal - crystallized

  • intelligence supported throughout lifetime

middle adulthood intelligence peaks

Fluid Intelligence

• abilities we have to percieve and process information, finding patterns and solving problems

  • related to processing speeds and working memory

  • peak in early adulthood, decline further

Crystallized Intelligence

individual’s accumulated storage of information, through learning and experience, social skills

• influenced by culture and experiences

• tests thorugh vocabulary and tests of dilemma

  • continues to increase, plateu around 70 years old

    • verbal ability remains stable _

    • deductive reasoning _

    • speacial orientation \

    • cognitive processing \

Seattle Longitudinal Study Age Correlated Performance levels

peak performance around middle age

• verbal ability remains stable _

• deductive reasoning _

• speacial orientation \

• cognitive processing \

Seattle Longitudinal Study Cohort Trends (Paul Valtise gains and loses)

current generations are better with working memory than previous generations

• better nutrition, education

lack short hand math

• calculators

use it or lose it princiiple

Flynn Effect

people getting more intelligent with each new generation

• result of contextual factors

  • better environments

Expertise

extroadinary profiencicy in a given task; elaborate knowledge base

• fast, integrative cognitive abilities and problem solving

  • unable to explain simple tasks due to abundant repeition

• peaks in middle adulthood

  • related to autonomy

• Encapsulation

Encapsulation

fluid intelligence is dedicated to specific knowledge- allowing that knowledge to be easier to access and use

this is reason why people its easy for pros to be pros

• supports SOC

Wisdom (experience, practice, complex skills)

expert knowledge, excellent judgement

• perspective taking and reasoning

• recognizing limits of your own knowledge

  • factors predicted on personality

Approaches to Studying Wisdom

social judgements- interpersonal maturity

personality

cognitive expertise

transcendence - material to spiritual outlooks

Wisdom Findings

• high levels of wisdom are rare; best predictors include

  • life experiences

  • wise mentors

  • holistic thinking, generativity

  • open to experiences

  • creativity

Conceptualizing Wisdom

Social Judgement Approach what would society cmmonly say a wise person looks like/acts like?

“old stoic guy”

Personality (Yung and Erikson)

defining wisdom and growing throughout development

Cognitive Expertise: having exceptional depth and judgement of a domain

Transcedence: being invested in wellfare of the whole, holisitic thinking

Changes in Attention

• divide attention and change focus

becomes increasingly difficult with age

differences in attention predict differences in cognitive performance

Memory

peaks around age 35

• declines are related to changes in attention

  • with age, adults are less likely to apply memory strategies and elboration

Cognitive Changes

decline: episodic/explicit: life events, mental time travel

• episodic and sematic

• younger better, first area of memory to decline

stable: semantic memory: general facts and knowledge (vocab)

• crystallized

• increase throughtout life

may improve: producural: stable, motor skills and habits

• priming, conditioning

Cognitive Fucntion

linked to prefrontal cortex

• shrinks with age; related to decrease in working memory

• older adults have difficulty with cognitive control and inhibiting repsonses

• less cognitive flexilbity

Processing Speeds

decrease

• reaction time tests

• more complex the test, greater the decline

• better performance with vocal responses

Selective Optimization with Compensation (Bates: SOC)

using resources to compensate for weakened mechanical abilities (re-allocating resources)

compensating for losses while perserving function

Dual Process Model: using psychological rescrouces to compensate for weakened abilites

• external aids

External Aids

lists, things to help with aging

wheelchairs, walkers

Training Cognitive Skills in Older Adults

• some loss in plasicity in late adulthood; oldest-old

  • can be improved

building up congitive reserve

Dementia (neuroglogical disorder)

neurological disorder, progressive deteroiration of mental functioning

loses abilities in

• emotional states

• care for self

• recognizing others

procedural memory stays intact until later stages

• learned most recently, forget first

risk for dementia in low and middle contries inceease

Symptoms of dimentia

• overlap of medication

• lack of vitamins

Alzehiemers (Neurodegenative)

most common form of dementia (2/3)

• risk of alzeheimers coincides with age (~65)

• alzheimers increase, due to longer lifespans with technology

Acetylcholine (important for memory) breaks down

• Progression: general cognitive decline → personality and behavior changes → motor complications→severe dementia→ death

• flat affect: displaying no emotion on face

plagues and tangles has correlation but no causation with alzeimers

Alzieimers DIagnoses

• diagnosed by exclusions (no other possibilites besides alzheimers diagnosis)

• brain imaging

Risk factors for Alzheimers

• Gender differences

women at higher risk; longer lifespan

• Ethnicity + Genetics

herediary

• cardiovascular issues

Protection against Alzeihmers

education, remaining cognitively enagaged

• builds up cognitive reserve; more synaptic connections, more time to deconstruct

  • thickens cortex and serve

• excersize

  • increased hippocampus

  • increase in oxygen to brain and cognitive fucntionign

  • EF and mem

• Caregivers

  • respit care; allowing short-term supervision of elderly to combat role overload and stress

Nun Study

a group of nun's in near identical contexts donated their brain for the study of alzi

• vocabulary and wirtten expression deflect dementia

Vascular Dementia (Multi-Infarct Dementia)

• caused by strokes or blockages of blood cells

  • within a stroke, brain cells die, and cognitive functioning decreases

  • small strokes go unnoticed, leading to irreversable cognitive decline

    • plasicity and aid supports otherwise

Risks:

• cardiovascular risks

• men

  • unhealthy lifestyle

Parkinsons (Neurodegenerative Disease)

Chronic, progressive

Onset: damage to dopamine nuerons

Symptoms:

• issues with movement (tremors, paralysis, shuffling)

Parkisons Treatment

dopamine drugs agants

• give during earlier

Ldopa

• later in treatment- only when quality of life is impacted

  • metabolized and turned into dopamine

    • works for short period of time

movement disorders happens years before cognitive decline

Lew Body Dementia

• visual hallucinations

• fluctating cogntiive symtpoms

• sleep disorders

Very similar to Parkinsons;

Distinguished by: movement disorders and cognitive decline happen within a year of eachother

Delirium

• reversibile dementia symptoms or behavior factors

• changes in cognitive not attributable to dementia

  • meidcation

  • nutition

  • ear infectionss

  • dehydrated

symptoms of depression and anxiety in elder adults mimic dementia/delirium

Respit Care

programs open to giving short-term relief for caregivers

• targetied for sandwich generation