Transcript PowerPoint Presentation for chapter 19

Chapter 18:
Cognitive Development in Late Adulthood
Life-Span Development
Twelfth Edition
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
MULTIDIMENSIONALITY

Cognitive mechanics: the “hardware” of the
mind
 Speed
and accuracy of processes involved in
sensory input, attention, visual and motor
memory, discrimination, comparison, and
categorization

Tends to decline with age
 Strongly
influenced by biology and heredity
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MULTIDIMENSIONALITY

Cognitive pragmatics: culture-based
“software” programs of the mind
 Reading,
writing, and educational qualifications
 Professional skills and language comprehension
 Knowledge of self and life skills

May improve with age
 Strong
cultural influences
©2009 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
MULTIDIMENSIONALITY
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MULTIDIMENSIONALITY
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MULTIDIMENSIONALITY

Speed of Processing:
 Speed
of processing information declines in late
adulthood
 Considerable
individual variation
 Often due to a decline in brain and CNS functioning

Attention:
 Selective
attention: focusing on a specific
aspect of experience that is relevant while
ignoring others that are irrelevant
 Older
adults are generally less adept at this
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MULTIDIMENSIONALITY

Attention (continued):
 Divided
attention: concentrating on more than
one activity at the same time
 When
tasks are easy, age differences are minimal
 The more difficult the tasks, the less effectively older
adults divide attention
 Sustained
attention: readiness to detect and
respond to small changes occurring at random
times in the environment
 Older
adults perform just as well on simple tasks; but
performance drops on complex tasks
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MULTIDIMENSIONALITY
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MULTIDIMENSIONALITY

Memory:
 Memory
changes during aging, but not all
memory changes in the same way
 Episodic memory: younger adults have better
episodic memory
 Semantic memory: does not decline as drastically
as episodic memory
 Exception:
tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
 Working
memory and perceptual speed: decline
during the late adulthood years
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MULTIDIMENSIONALITY

Memory (continued):
 Explicit
memory: memory of facts and
experiences that individuals consciously know
and can state
 Implicit memory: memory without conscious
recollection; skills and routines that are
automatically performed
 Implicit
memory shows less aging declines than explicit
memory
 Source
memory: the ability to remember where
one learned something
 Decreases
with age during late adulthood
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MULTIDIMENSIONALITY

Memory (continued):
 Prospective
memory: remembering to do
something in the future
 Age
decline depends on the nature of the task and
what is being assessed
 Older
adults’ beliefs and expectancies about
memory play a role in their actual memory
 Memory ability is influenced by health, education,
and socioeconomic status
 Research has relied primarily on laboratory tests
of memory, not real-world tasks
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MULTIDIMENSIONALITY

Wisdom:
 Wisdom:
expert knowledge about the practical
aspects of life that permits excellent judgment
about important matters
 High levels of wisdom are rare
 Late adolescence to early adulthood is the main
age window for wisdom to emerge
 Factors other than age are critical for wisdom to
develop to a high level
 Personality-related factors are better predictors of
wisdom than cognitive factors
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EDUCATION, WORK, AND HEALTH

Education:
 Successive
generations in America’s 20th century
were better educated
 Older adults might seek more education for a
number of reasons

Work:
 Successive
generations have placed a stronger
emphasis on cognitively oriented labor
 Substantive complex work is linked with higher
intellectual functioning in older adults
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EDUCATION, WORK, AND HEALTH

Health:
 Successive
generations have been healthier in
late adulthood
 Better
treatments for a variety of illnesses
 Lifestyle
and exercise are linked to improved
cognitive functioning
 Mental health can influence cognitive functioning
 Terminal decline: changes in cognitive functioning
may be linked more to distance from death than
distance from birth
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USE IT OR LOSE IT
Changes in cognitive activity patterns can
result in disuse and lead to atrophy of skills
 Certain mental activities can benefit the
maintenance of cognitive skills

 Reading
books, doing crossword puzzles, going
to lectures and concerts

Research suggests that mental exercise may
reduce cognitive decline and lower the
likelihood of developing Alzheimer disease
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TRAINING COGNITIVE SKILLS
Training can improve the cognitive skills of
many older adults
 There is some loss in plasticity in late
adulthood, especially in the oldest-old
 Improving the physical fitness of older adults
can improve their cognitive functioning

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COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE AND AGING

Cognitive neuroscience: discipline that studies
links between the brain and cognitive
functioning
 Changes
in the brain can influence cognitive
functioning, and changes in cognitive functioning
can influence the brain

Cognitive neuroscience is beginning to
uncover important links between aging, the
brain, and cognitive functioning
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LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT

Some decrements in language may appear in
late adulthood
Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
 Difficulty understanding speech due to hearing
problems

Speech of older adults is typically lower in
volume, slower, less precisely articulated, and
less fluent
 Non-language factors may be responsible for
some of the decline in language skills

Slower information processing speed
 Decline in working memory

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WORK
From 1900 to 2000, the number of men over
age 65 who work full-time decreased by about
70%, probably due to the availability of parttime work
 Good health, a strong psychological
commitment to work, and a distaste for
retirement are important factors related to
continued employment into old age

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WORK
Cognitive ability is the best predictor of job
performance in older adults
 Older workers have lower rates of
absenteeism, fewer accidents, and increased
job satisfaction
 Many middle-aged and older adults are
embarking on a 2nd or 3rd career
 Many older adults participate in unpaid work
as volunteers

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WORK
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RETIREMENT
On average, workers spend 10%–15% of their
lives in retirement
 Life paths for individuals in their 60’s:

Some continue work
 Some retire from their career work and start a new
and different job
 Some retire from career jobs but do volunteer work
 Some move in and out of the work force
 Some individuals move to a disability status and
eventually into retirement
 Some who are laid off define it as “retirement”

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ADJUSTMENT TO RETIREMENT
Retirement is a process, not an event
 Older adults who adjust best to retirement:

 Have
an adequate income
 Are better educated
 Are healthy and active
 Have extended social networks and family
 Were satisfied with their lives before retiring
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MENTAL HEALTH: DEPRESSION
Major depression: mood disorder in which
the individual is deeply unhappy, demoralized,
self-derogatory, and bored
 Depression does not become more frequent
in late adulthood

 Fewer
economic hardships
 Fewer negative social exchanges
 Increased religiosity
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MENTAL HEALTH: DEPRESSION

Depressive symptoms increase in the oldestold
 Higher
percentage of women
 More physical disability
 More cognitive impairment
 Lower socioeconomic status

Women show more depression at 50 and 60
years of age, but depression in men increases
from 60 to 80
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MENTAL HEALTH: DEPRESSION

Common predictors:
 Earlier
depressive symptoms
 Poor health or disability
 Loss events
 Low social support
25% of individuals who commit suicide in the
U.S. are 65 years of age or older
 Older adult most likely to commit suicide is a
male who lives alone, has lost his spouse,
and is experiencing failing health

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DEMENTIA AND ALZHEIMER DISEASE

Dementia: any neurological disorder in which the
primary symptoms involve a deterioration of
mental functioning


20% of individuals over the age of 80 have dementia
Alzheimer Disease: a common form of dementia
that is characterized by a gradual deterioration of
memory, reasoning, language, and eventually,
physical function
Rates could triple within the next 50 years as people
live longer
 Divided into early-onset (younger than 65) or lateonset (later than 65)

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DEMENTIA AND ALZHEIMER DISEASE

Alzheimer Disease (continued):
 Alzheimer
involves a deficiency in the brain
messenger chemical acetylcholine
 Brain shrinks and deteriorates as memory ability
decreases
 Formation
of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary
tangles
 Age
is an important risk factor, and genes also
play an important role
 Healthy lifestyle factors may lower the risk
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DEMENTIA AND ALZHEIMER DISEASE
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DEMENTIA AND ALZHEIMER DISEASE

Mild Cognitive Impairment represents a
transitional state between the cognitive
changes of normal aging and very early
disease
 Deficits
in episodic memory appear to be an
especially important early indication of risk

Several medications have been approved to
treat Alzheimer disease
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DEMENTIA AND ALZHEIMER DISEASE
Caring for people with Alzheimer is a major
concern
 Support is often emotionally and physically
draining for the family


50% of family caregivers report depression
Female caregivers report more caregiving hours,
higher levels of burden and depression, and
lower levels of well-being and physical health
than male caregivers
 Respite care services have been developed to
help people who take care of family members
with Alzheimer disease

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DEMENTIA AND ALZHEIMER DISEASE

Multi-Infarct Dementia: a sporadic and
progressive loss of intellectual functioning
caused by repeated temporary obstruction of
blood flow in cerebral arteries
More common among men with a history of high
blood pressure
 Recovery is possible


Parkinson Disease: a chronic, progressive
disease characterized by muscle tremors,
slowing of movement, and facial paralysis
Triggered by the degeneration of dopamine-producing
neurons in the brain
 Several treatments are available

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VICTIMIZATION, CRIME, AND MISTREATMENT
Older adults commonly report fear of being
the victim of a crime, but they are actually less
likely than younger adults to be victimized
 Crimes committed against older adults are
likely to be serious offenses
 Older adult crime victimization rates may be
higher than reported by victims due to:

 Fear
of retribution from criminals
 Belief the criminal justice system can’t help
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VICTIMIZATION, CRIME, AND MISTREATMENT
Elder maltreatment is primarily committed by
family members
 Elder maltreatment:

 Can
include neglect and physical abuse
 Is most often suffered by women
 Institutional abuse: mistreatment of older adults
living in care facilities
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VICTIMIZATION, CRIME, AND MISTREATMENT

Older adults receive disproportionately fewer
mental health services
 Persons
age 65 or older make up 11% of the
population but receive only 2.7% of all
clinical services provided by psychologists
 Psychologists prefer to work with young,
attractive, verbal, intelligent and successful clients
(YAVISes) rather than quiet, ugly, old,
institutionalized, and different clients (QUOIDs)
 Mental health care needs to be more available
and affordable for older adults
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RELIGION
Older adults are spiritual leaders in many
societies around the world
 Religion is:

 More
significant in older adults’ lives
 Related to a sense of meaning in life
 Related to higher levels of life satisfaction,
optimism, and self-esteem
 Associated with better health
 Perhaps associated with living longer
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