Cognitive Development in Late Adulthood

Cognitive
Development
in late Adulthood
Chapter 18
© 2013 by McGraw-Hill Education. This is proprietary material solely for authorized instructor use. Not authorized for sale or distribution in any manner. This
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Chapter Outline
• Cognitive functioning in older adults
• Language development
• Work and retirement
• Mental health
• Religion and spirituality
18 - 2
Multidimensionality and
Multidirectionality
• Cognitive mechanics
– The “hardware” of the mind
– Reflect the neurophysiological architecture of the
brain developed through evolution
• Cognitive pragmatics
– Culture-based “softwareprograms” of the mind
– Reading, writing, and educational qualifications
– Professional skills and language comprehension
18 - 3
Figure 18.1 - Theorized Age Changes in Cognitive
Mechanics and Cognitive Pragmatics
18 - 4
Multidirectionality
• Speed of processing
– Considerable individual variation in this ability
– Due to a decline in functioning of the brain and
central nervous system
• Attention
– Selective attention
– Divided attention
– Sustained attention
– Executive attention
18 - 5
Figure 18.2 - The Relation of Age to Reaction
Time
18 - 6
Multidirectionality
• Memory
– Episodic memory - Younger adults have better
episodic memory
– Semantic memory - Does not decline as drastically
as episodic memory
– Working memory and perceptual speed - Decline
during the late adulthood years
– Explicit and implicit memory - The latter is less
likely to be adversely affected with aging than the
former 18 - 7
Multidirectionality
– Source memory - Ability to remember where one
learned something
– Prospective memory - Involves remembering to do
something in the future
– Noncognitive factors - Health, education, and
socioeconomic status can influence an older
adult’s performance on memory tasks
18 - 8
Multidirectionality
• Executive functioning
– Aspects of working memory that especially decline
in older adults involve:
• Updating memory representations that are relevant for
the task at hand
• Replacing old, no longer relevant information
• Decision making - Preserved rather well in
older adults
18 - 9
Multidirectionality
• Wisdom
– 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
18 - 10
Multidirectionality
• Education
– Successive generations in America’s 20th century were
better educated
• Work
– Successive generations have placed a stronger
emphasis on cognitively oriented labor
• Health
– Successive generations have been healthier in late
adulthood
– Terminal decline - Best described as slow and steady
18 - 11
Multidirectionality
• Use it or lose it
– 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
• Lower the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease
18 - 12
Multidirectionality
• Training cognitive skills
– Improve the cognitive skills of many older adults
– Some loss in plasticity in late adulthood, especially
in the oldest-old
– Cognitive vitality of older adults can be improved
through cognitive and physical fitness training
18 - 13
Multidirectionality
• 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
18 - 14
Language Development
• Some decrements in language may appear in
late adulthood
– Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
– Difficulty understanding speech
• Speech of older adults is lower in volume,
slower, less precisely articulated, and less fluent
• Reason for decline in language
– Slower information processing speed and decline in
working memory
18 - 15
Work and Retirement
• Work
– Cognitive ability is one of the best predictors of
job performance in older adults
– And older workers have lower rates of
absenteeism, fewer accidents, and higher job
satisfaction than their younger counterparts
18 - 16
Figure 18.8 - Responses Given by People who were
Asked When They Expected to Retire from Work
18 - 17
Work and Retirement
• Retirement in the U.S.
– On average, workers will spend 10%-15% of their
lives in retirement
– Life paths for individuals in their 60s are less clear
today
– 7 million retired Americans return to work after
they retire
18 - 18
Work and Retirement
• Work and retirement in other countries
– 33% of those in their 60s and 11% in their 70s are
still working
– An increasing number of adults are beginning to
reject the early retirement option
18 - 19
Work and Retirement
• Adjustment to retirement
– Older adults who adjust best to retirement are:
• Healthy
• Active and have adequate income
• Are better educated
• Have extended social networks and family
• Satisfied with their lives before retiring
• Flexible and plan key factors
18 - 20
Mental Health
• Major depression - Less common among older
adults than younger adults
– 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
18 - 21
Mental Health
• Dementia: Involve a deterioration of mental
functioning
– 20% of individuals over the age of 80 have
dementia
18 - 22
Mental Health
• Alzheimer disease: Gradual deterioration of
memory, reasoning, language, and eventually,
physical function
– Women are likely to develop Alzheimer disease
because they live longer than men
– Alzheimer involves a deficiency in the brain
messenger chemical acetylcholine
– Deterioration of the brain
– Formation of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary
tangles 18 - 23
Figure 18.10 - Two Brains: Normal Aging and
Alzheimer Disease
18 - 24
Mental Health
– Early detection and drug treatment
• Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) represents a
transitional state between the cognitive changes of
normal aging and very early disease
• fMRI shows smaller brain regions involved in memory
for individuals with MCI
18 - 25
Mental Health
– Drug treatment of Alzheimer disease
• Cholinerase inhibitors and other drugs slow the
downward progression of the disease
– Caring for individuals with Alzheimer disease
• Support is often emotionally and physically draining for
the family
• Respite care services
18 - 26
Mental Health
• 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
18 - 27
Mental Health
• Fear of victimization, crime, and elder
mistreatment
– Older adults receive disproportionately fewer
mental health services
– Psychologists prefer to work with YAVISes rather
than QUOIDs
– Mental health care needs to be more available
and affordable for older adults
18 - 28
Religion and Spirituality
• Older adults are spiritual leaders in many
societies around the world
• Older adults have higher levels of life
satisfaction, self-esteem, and optimism
• Religion can provide some important
psychological needs in older adults
18 - 29

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