HHG Unit 4 Review - Adults & Seniors

Early adulthood (18-30)

Early adulthood (18-30)

Peak in physical strength

Immune system operates at maximum efficiency

Skin is smooth and taut

Hair is full of color and has a nice sheen

Quickest reflexes

Ability to hear is at its peak

Middle adulthood (30-50)

Skin becomes dry and loses elasticity

Grey hairs appear

Heart rate and lung capacity decrease

Hair begins to thin

Wrinkles appear

Difficulty seeing distant objects

Gradual loss of hearing

Late adulthood (50-65)

Gradual bone loss

Male climacteric begins

Fat replaces muscle

Skin becomes loose

Hair becomes white and thin

Disks below spinal vertebrae atrophy

Joints deteriorate

Old age (65+)

Muscles and fat breakdown

Weight loss occurs

Loss of up to 80% visual acuity

Genetic programming theory

A normal developmental timetable is built into our genes caused by a pre-set biological clock that limits the number of times cells can divide and multiply

Environmental influences play little to no role in the aging process

Programmed senescence

specific genes shut off

Hormonal changes

clock acts through hormones that control aging

Immune system

a decline in the immune system that causes the body to be susceptible to aging

Variable rate theory

Aging is the result of processes that vary from person to person

Aging is the process influenced by the internal and external environment

Aging is the result of the breakdown in our bodies’ cells, or unexpected damage to our biological systems

Wear and tear

the body system accumulates damage through use, which can be accelerated by stress

Somatic mutation

genetic mutations occur and accumulate with increasing age, causing cells to deteriorate and malfunction

5 stages of psychological adjustments to death

denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance

Denial

• “This can’t be happening”

• Person may assert that the doctors are incompetent or that the diagnosis is mistaken

• May refuse treatment and persist in going about business as usual

Anger

• “Why me?”

• They feel anger at fate, at the powers that be, at every person comes into their life

• They are likely to alienate themselves from others, for no one can relieve their shortened life span and lost chances

Bargaining

• People may change their attitude and attempt to bargain with fate

• May announce that they are ready to settle for a less threatening form of the same illness and begin to bargain with the doctor over the diagnosis

Depression

• They are depressed about the loss to come: they are in the process of losing everybody and everything

Acceptance

• The struggle is over, and they experience a sense of calm

• In some cases, the approach of death feels appropriate or peaceful

• They seem to become detached intentionally so as to make death easier

4 factors of learning

1. Learning is inferred from a change in behaviour/performance

2. Learning results in an inferred change in memory

3. Learning is the result of experience

4. Learning is relatively permanent

Behavior potential

once something is learned, an organism can exhibit a behavior that indicates learning has occured

Classical conditioning

• states that behaviors are learned by connecting a neutral stimulus with a positive one, such as Pavlov's dogs hearing a bell (neutral) and expecting food (positive)

• the learned behavior is called a conditioned response

Stimulus

A thing or event that evokes a specific activity, energy, or functional reaction

Response

A reaction that is seen within an organism

Conditioned

When someone or something is trained to behave in a certain way

Unconditioned

When someone or something behaves in a certain way without any training or learning

Pavlov’s experiment

neutral stimulus + unconditioned stimulus = conditioned stimulus

Operant conditioning

• A type of learning in which voluntary (controllable; non-reflexive) behavior is strengthened if it is reinforced and weakened if it is punished (or not reinforced)

• The controlling stimulus comes after the behavior

Positive reinforcement

providing a reward if the desired behavior occurs (e.g. getting paid for working, getting a sticker on a good test, receiving a candy for answering a question)

Negative reinforcement

removing or preventing a painful stimulus if the desired behavior occurs (e.g. if a child behaves, she/he will not be spanked)

Fixed ratio

a student receives a reward after a fixed number of times they perform a desired behavior

Variable ratio

a student receives a reward after a variable number of times they perform a desired behavior

Fixed interval

a student receives a reward after a fixed period of time in which they perform the desired behavior

Variable interval

a student receives a reward after a variable period of time in which they perform the desired behavior

Modeling

learning by imitating others

Observational learning

learning and doing something that you didn’t know before - learned by watching

Disinhibition

watching activity ‘misbehaving’ without punishment, subject is more likely to misbehave

Crystalized intelligence

• Consists of learned information and experience

• Ability to use accumulated knowledge and learning in appropriate situations

• Acquired over a lifetime and increases with age and experience

• Dependent on education, cultural background and memory

Eg: language comprehension and mathematical reasoning

Fluid intelligence

• Ability to solve abstract relational problems and to generate new hypothesis

• Capacity to process novel information

• Requires the ability to understand relationships and make inferences

• Ability improves as nervous system matures

• Not related to education

Eg: solving puzzles

Fluid intelligence declines

as nervous system declines in mid adulthood, difficulty in generating new ideas

Crystalized intelligence improves

until the end of life

1905 Binet-Simon scale

• Basis of IQ testing

• Commissioned by the French government to identify students who would face the most difficulty in school

• Was a relatively efficient way to  identify and sort individuals based on intelligence

1939 Wechsler IQ test

• Included a wider variety of verbal and nonverbal skills

• It was an attempt to evaluate WWI draftees’ intellectual and emotional temperament for job classification

IQ test was adopted by

by the military and police to screen potential applicants. Admission requirements were based on IQ results

by North American education systems to identify “gifted and talented” students as well as those with “special needs”

Mean IQ score

100

80% of the population is within

one standard deviation (15 pts)

Issues with IQ testing

• Socioeconomic and racial groups ≠ genetically different levels of intelligence

• Did not consider multiple variables involved. Correlation does not imply causation.

• Used to control and exclude marginalized communities using ‘scientific language.’

• Legalized forced sterilizations of people with low IQ scores

• Tests are culture specific and all have one right answer

Multiple intelligence

differentiates human intelligence into specific 'modalities', rather than seeing intelligence as dominated by a single general ability

Physical changes in late adulthood

• More wrinkles appear and skin loses its elasticity

• Age spots

• Muscle loss, less range of motion

• Organs decrease in function

• Decrease in sense of taste and sensitivity to touch

Age spots appear on

the face, hands and shoulders

Older adults get shorter because

they lose cartilage in the vertebrae

Strengthening exercises can

slow the process improving both physical appearance and abilities

In late adulthood the brain

shrinks and pulls away from the skull

In late adulthood the heart

capacity decreases, blood vessels harden and has to work harder to get blood to other organs

In late adulthood the lungs

have a lower air capacity

In late adulthood the digestive system

slows often resulting in constipation

Incontinence

the involuntary passing of urine or stool may occur as health deteriorates

Old age changes happen faster for

those that live a sedentary lifestyles

Presbyopia

a slow decrease in the ability to focus on nearby objects, progressively worsens

• challenging to adjust from light to darkness, from low glare to high glare, and to see objects in the side view

Eye and hearing exams are recommended

every 1-2 years

Cataracts

• the lens of the eye thickens causing cloudy or distorted vision

• colors are not as bright, and details become blurry

• glasses can help but as it progresses surgery is necessary

Glaucoma

• An eye condition that involves damage to the optic nerve caused by fluid build up that puts pressure on the nerve

• Less common than cataracts

• Typical treatment includes eye drops to reduce pressure

• If left untreated it can cause blindness

Macular degeneration

• An eye disease that cause the people to have difficulty seeing object inside the center of the field of vision

• Objects in the periphery, the outer edges of the centre view, are clearly visual

• It occurs when the retina, the light sensitive tissue at the back of the eye, deteriorates

• It is the leading cause of blindness in older adults

Reasons for hearing loss

Genetics, illness, exposure to loud sounds, and damage to the inner or middle ear

Presbycusis

Hearing loss associated with age

Tinnitus

Ringing sound in ears

Impact of hearing loss

difficulty in communication, isolating

Sarcopenia

• Loss of muscle mass and strength, continues to decrease

• Fat tissues increase, and fat deposits continue to change as well

• Joints often aches and they feel stiffness in their bones along with muscle aches and pains

Osteoporosis

• Causes brittle less dense bones

• Hunched over and standing up straight is difficult

• Bones break more easily

3 step process of memory

1. encoding

2. storage

3. retrieval

Encoding

The processing of information into the memory system

Storage

The retention of encoded material over time

Retrieval

The process of getting the information out of memory storage

How does learning rely on memory

Learning requires the storage and retrieval of information

How does memory rely on learning

• An individual’s established knowledge base provides a structure of past learning

• Incoming data attaches to that structure through association

3 stages of memory

1. sensory

2. short term

3. long term

Sensory memory

• Visual, auditory, and olfactory information

• Transfers to short-term memory

Short term memory

• Stores seven single or chunked items for 30 seconds without repetition

• Solves problems through reasoning process (example: organizing facts into coherent essay)

Long term memory

Information and associations between information stored indefinitely

The ability to transfer information from short term to long term memory is

relevant to the learning process

Learning process

• People use attention, repetition and association with past learning to encode information

• Neurologically, encoding happens when information is repeatedly processed in the hippocampus

4 types of long term memory

declarative, non-declarative, episodic, semantic

Declarative memory (explicit)

• memories that can be consciously recalled like facts & knowledge

• thought to be stored in the temporal cortex

Non-declarative memory

encoded by cerebellum independent of the hippocampus regulation, involves use of objects and movements, considered to be unconscious memory

Episodic

• specific personal experiences are stored

• events that occurred at a specific time and place, such as your 6th birthday party.

Semantic memory

stored factual information

Critical factor in encoding

the relationship of incoming data to pre-existing mental frameworks

The more associations made with established learning:

the better new information is retained

Memories are NOT

stored in a single location

Memories are

complex neuronal networks spread through the brain’s entire surface

Encoding does NOT

ensure retention

80% of learning is

forgotten in 48 hours

Encoding needs to

activate storage and retrieval processes

Review

retrieval of information temporarily copies it into working memory for further processing in hippocampus

REM sleep

memories are replayed and reinforced in hippocampus

Preliminary review

new learning peaks after 10 minutes

Subsequent study

• At one-day, one-week, one-month, and six month intervals

• Permanent memory traces are stored where sensory inputs first occurred

• They are connected in neuronal networks

Maintenance rehearsal

• repeating things over & over to hold information in STM

• not effective for LTM

Elaborative rehearsal

• organizing, thinking about, and linking new material to existing memories is more effective for LTM

• the more associations we build, the more cues we’ll have for retrieval

• the more deeply you process information, the better your recall

Recency effect

a bias that results in a subject recalling most recent information presented better than information presented earlier on

Primacy effect

a cognitive bias that results in a subject recalling primary information presented better than information presented later on

Retrograde amnesia

Head trauma or other temporary disruption of normal brain functioning interrupts storage of memories of events just BEFORE the trauma