PSYS 423 Exam #2

Psychology of Adult Aging

Attention

paying attention; comprehension

Divided attention

having multiple things going on and attending to different stimuli

Are we good at multitasking/divided attention?

No, not at any age

Rather than divided attention, what are we actually doing

shifting quickly from things quickly

* quicker for younger adults
* slower for older adults

As we get older we do not lose the ability to pay attention, but what?

focusing becomes difficult

Visual Search

the process of searching your environment in an attempt to locate a particular item.

Visual search is best when we are…

best when we are younger

Visual search is worse for…

fallers over 70 who had fallen in the last 6 months

**Memory**

ability to retain or store information and retrieve it when needed

**Short-term memory**

memory involved in holding information for several seconds then either discarding or retaining it

* 20 seconds

**Long-term memory**

where information can be stored for many years or even forever

* no limit

**Working memory**

in information processing, the segment of the short-term that performs cognitive operations on information

**Digit-span task**

test in which the participant hears a list of digits and is asked to recall them in exact order and used to assess STM

How many numbers on average can people remember?

5-7 numbers

Why do some people score higher on digit-span task?

Chunking/grouping

Which memory stays relatively high even as we age

verbal knowledge

Which memory goes away quicker?

STM

More substantial decline in ____________ memory with age

working

Limitations in STM first

people start forgetting things that they leaarned recently

people with dementia

usually retain info about life through mid to late 20s

**Reason for working memory decline in older people?**

Older people don’t have the mental energy younger people do

\
Older people aren’t as able to use the strategies required by working-memory tasks

\
Decline in processing speed

\
Older adults are less able to inhibit irrelevant and confusing information

**Executive function**

the process involved in regulating attention and coordinating new and old information

\
ordering importance, how we pay attention, what we pay attention to, organizing info

What do we need to have working for our brain to work well? and is referred to as the CEO of the brain

Executive function

**Declarative memory**

knowledge that is available to conscious awareness and can be assessed by recall or recognition tests (memory that is consciously available. Things that we actively remember)

**Semantic memory**

facts and information

* Things accumulated through life

Semantic memory begins to show decline at age _____

75

**Word-finding failures**

trouble finding the correct word (tip-of-tongue)

**Name retrieval failures**

not being able to come up with name they are looking for and it is not always someone they know (celebrity)

With semantic memory, do we remember specific info or general info for it to be more stable?

general info

**Episodic memory**

File things that happened to us (person story, our life)

* older adults have difficulty with this, especially with recent episodic memory

**Nondeclarative memory**

memory system responsible for learning and retaining new skills

* it is automatic

**Prospective memory**

ability to remember to do something later on or at a specific time in the future

More you _______, better impact it has on your cognitive ability

exercise

**Contextual perspective**

approach to cognition that considers the context within which thought process takes place (Memory in context (ecological validity))

Ecological validity

Have to make sure it resemble something they do every day (resembles the real world)

**Adaptive nature of cognition**

how cognitive abilities adapt to life changes across a lifetime

* As we age, our ability to remember and process things cognitively depends on how well we can adapt

**Stereotype threat**

anxiety that arises when members of a group are put in positions that might confirm widely held, negative stereotypes about themselves

* Threat that we feel when any member of a stigmatize group knows there is a stereotype about what they will do

When there is Sterotype Threat , __________ participants are greatly impacted

older

**Intelligence**

visible indicator of the efficiency of various cognitive processes that work together behind the scenes to process information

g

general intellectual capacity, which influences the way we approach many different tasks

* everybody has a single thing that could be measured
* came first
* most fo not believe this

**I Q** **(intelligence quotient)**

score on an intelligence test that reflects general intellectual capacity

* not what you know, more about your adaptablity

**Psychometrics**

field of psychology that studies the measurement of human abilities

* focused on measuring human ability on things like intelligence

**Flynn effect**

increase shown in IQ scores over the last century,due mainly to changes of modern life

* each generation score higher than the last generation

**Crystallized intelligence**

learned abilities based on education and experience, measured by vocabulary and by verbal comprehension

* declines later
* can work on it
* verbal skills and verbal comprehension

**Fluid intelligence**

basic set of abilities believed to be more under the influence of biological processes

* declines around age 40
* declines much eatlier
* Cognitive flexibility including memory
* Abstract reasoning

Why is physical exercise good for reversing declines in intellectual abilities?

* Increases blood flow to brain
* Better the blood flow, more areas of the brain are reached
* Can train in specific areas to improve specific abilities

**Choice board**

a visual support that includes objects, photos, pictures, line drawings or text which can be used by your child to communicate what activity, item or task they would like

Older people making choices

struggle with making choices (executive function) but when it comes to lifestyle choices they make faster decisions and rely more on experience than info being presented

**Problem-focused** **approach**

Looks for solutions

* Look at the problem and finding the solution
* Not looking at the WHY
* It is effective problem solving

**Avoidant-denial strategy**

efforts to control the WHYs or the meanings of the problem

* More focused on understanding why we have a problem


* Not good problem solving strategy b/c don’t get to the solving part


* Older adults were rated as more effective for problem solving than younger adults

Older participants remember more when info had _______appeal

emotional

Younger participants remember more when _________knowledge was needed

material

**Positivity bias**

older adults are more likely to remember emotionally positive stimuli over negative stimuli

* Even if something was not positive in their life, they are able to remember it in a positive light

**Socioemotional selectivity theory**

people emphasis more meaningful and emotionally satisfied social relationships as they become older

* Older adults are choosing to associate with people they can create lasting bonds with


* Want more substantive conversations

What factors might predict differences in cognitive change?

* Traumatic or emotional health
* Exercise
* Genetics
* Education
* Environment
* Fall meter
* Intellectual activity

Intellectual activity

how likely you are to purse things that are intellectual stimulating

Factors associated with cognitive change: Vision and hearing

* Over a third of people over 65 have hearing impairment, most have some visual disability
* Auditory acuity

**Auditory acuity**

how sensitive the auditory system is to sound

Factors associated with cognitive change: Chronic Disease

* Affects overall health
* Alzheimer’s disease; dementia
* Obesity, high blood pressure, vitamin deficiencies, thyroid disease, clinical depression, subclinical depression

Factors associated with cognitive change: Medication

* Can cause cognitive decline
* As you get older the likelihood that you will be on medication increases and the likelihood you will take more than one
* Polypharmacy 

Sensory changes

when vision and hearing change occur it is likely to lead to cognitive decline

* less stimulation
* way you are able to challenge yourself changes

**Heritability** **scores**

measures the strength of genetic influence on a behavior

____________ behaviors are among the most heritable of behaviors

cognitive

Correlations on tests for a number of cognitive abilities are higher for monozygotic twin pairs

\
cognitive ability is influenced by genetics, but also that different types of cognition are influenced to different extents.

**Sociobiographical history**

level of professional prestige, social position, and income that one experiences throughout one’s life

**Expertise**

* training and experience
* Education and repetition

Postformal thought

openness. Encourage critical thinking skills

* Longer you are in school, further your postformal thought is
* Challenged
* Have to actually engage in conversation with people outside of what you believe
* Advanced problem-solving skills, finding solutions to problems that may not exist yet
* Increases just by being on a college campus

Selective optimization with compensation

optimize areas that are important to us and lose area that are not as important

_____ exercise promotes cell growth in the hippocampus and other brain structures involving memory

Aerobic

Taking notes during a lecture, making a list of things to-do are examples of using

cognitive assistance

**Medication adherence**

ability of patients to follow their physicians’ instructions about taking their prescribed medication in the right dosages, at the right time, and for the right length of time

* Are you doing what the doctor tells you to do with your mediation
* Estimated half of U.S. patients who suffer from chronic conditions do not adhere to their doctors’ instructions
* Expense, forget, think you know better

**Prospective memory**

remembering to do something in the future

* Technology, such as electronic devices, apps, etc., can improve medication adherence

How do social netweoking help older adults

helps them stay in touch

Facebook use by people age 50 – 64 increased from ____% in 2011 to ____% in 2018

34, 52

Among people age 64 and older, ___% own a cell phone; ___% have a smart phone

85, 46

_____% of all drivers in the U.S. are 65 years of age or older

19

What % of older drivers accounts for all auto fatalities

28%

**Useful field of view**

area of the visual field that can be processed in one glance

* What we can see when we look gets smaller
* Ability to turn your head very far declines
* Older folks tend to drive slower

Older drivers with a reduction in their useful field of view of 40% or more were _____as likely to be involved in an auto crash

twice

Age of Drivers and Number of Fatal Crashes: Behind the 80 years old is the ____ group

16-19

**Social roles**

* Change throughout the life span
* Currently have more social roles than we will ever have
* Student, child, employee, auntie, significant other, grandkid, friend, etc
* Decline throughout life
* Peak in emerging adulthood

**Role transitions**

Changes in life circumstances and what role may be

**Biological clock**

Tells us about what we expect physically as we age

* Ex) child bearing clock (end date) to reproduction in women

**Social clock**

What society expects of you at a given time

* Ex) expected to be in college at 19-20

**Social Timing**

pattern of when we occupy certain roles, how long we occupy them, and the order in which we move from one to another

* For most people it goes as expected
* A lot of people go through life in difference social timing
* Ex) having a kid at 16


* Report lower levels of happiness if you are atypical
* Dependent on culture

Bernice Neugarten

Form a mental representation of normal, expectable life cycle

Jette Heckhausenoff-time in social clock lower levels of life satisfaction

People off-time in social clock lower levels of life satisfaction

**Gender roles**

* Depends on society
* Where you grew up influence you
* *Behavior of specific gender*

**Gender schema theory**

* Kids are taught to view the world and themselves through gender lenses
* Boys are supposed to do something and girls are supposed to do other things

**Social role theory**

* Gender roles are learned based on what they see modeled around them
* Not necessarily taught, thy can look around and see

**Proximal causes**

Factors in the immediate (present) environment that effects your gender ideals

**Distal causes**

Factors present in the distant past that effects your gender ideals evolution 

**Evolutionary psychology**

gender roles were solutions our primitive ancestors evolved in response to recurrent problems they faced millions of years ago

* proposes that males and females were genetically predisposided to function in different ways

Gender sterotypes: Sets of shared beliefs about what ____men & women in a society have in common

all

Gender sterotypes: What members of each gender ____to do

ought

Gender sterotypes: How members of each gender ____behave

should

Stereotypes are ________ across cultures

consistent

**Instrumental Qualities**

* Personal characteristics that have an active impact
* Typically relate these to men
* Masculine serotypes

**Communal Qualities**

* Characteristics  that bring people together
* They are more nurturing
* Typically relate them to women
* Feminine stereotypes

Masculine (Instrumental) Traits

* Independent
* Competitive
* Makes decision quickly
* Doesn’t give up easily
* Self-confident
* Stands up well under pressure
* Feels Superior

Masculine (Instrumental) Roles

* Head of household
* Financial provider
* Leader
* Responsible for household repairs