·      uses a computer metaphor to explain how people process stimuli; information enters the brain, is transformed, coded, and stored in various ways.

What are the assumptions on which the Information-Processing model is based?

o  People are active participants in the process

o  Both quantitative (how much information is remembered) and qualitative (what kinds of information are remembered) aspects of performance can be examined

o  Information is processed through a series of processes

o  concerns learning and remembering the meaning of words and concepts that are not tied to specific occurrences of events in time (i.e. knowing definitions of words in order to complete crossword puzzles, being able to translate paragraph from English to Spanish, understanding what the instructor says during a lecture.

·      (sometimes called declarative) intentional and conscious remember of information that is learned and remembers at a specific point in time)

·      the earliest step in information processing where new, incoming information is first registered.

·      refers to the processes and structures involved in holding information in mind and simultaneously using that information, sometimes in conjunction with informing information, to solve a problem, make a decision, or learn new information. (In general, working memory will decline with age).

·      is a highly detailed, exceptionally vivid 'snapshot' of the moment and circumstances in which a piece of surprising and consequential (or emotionally arousing) news was heard. Part of autobiographical memory.

·      process involving remembering to remember something in the future.

·      memory about how memory works and what one believes to be true about it.

Are highly traumatic events certain to be remembered well?

No

Implicit/Explicit Memory Strategies, Internal/External Aids, and E-I-E-I-O Framework.

Most common method (memory enhancement):

·      in general, explicit-external interventions are the most frequently used, probably because they are easy to use and widely available. (i.e. address books are common, small notebooks easily available in stores, etc.)

How is memory tested on the Mini-Mental Status Exam?

·      Test includes simple questions and problems in a number of areas: the time and place of the test, repeating lists of words, arithmetic such as the serial sevens, language use and comprehension, and basic motor skills.

What is forgetting, exactly?

·      (aka: retention loss) refers to apparent loss of information already encoded and stored in an individual's long term memory. It is a spontaneous or gradual process in which old memories are unable to be recalled from memory storage.

What is the psychometric approach to intelligence?

·      An approach to intelligence involving defining it as performance on standardized tests.

·      classic pattern of intellectual aging characterized by multidirectional age profiles in intellectual performance. Age-irrelevant abilities are relatively constant in adulthood, whereas age-sensitive abilities exhibit moderate to substantial decline with age.

What do Project ADEPT and Project Active demonstrate?  

o   Cognitive training techniques could reverse declines that had been reliably documented over the 14 year period.

o   Cognitive training interventions improved mental ability and daily functioning in older independent living adults.

·       much more comprehensive training study involving a series of short longitudinal studies; Penn state’s Adult Development and Enrichment Project. Training studies conducted as part of ADPET included two levels of intervention in addition to a no-training control group.

·       newer project which involves fluid ability training among the elderly. First approach involves participants in Schai’s longitudinal study in Seattle. In one study, participants were assigned to one of two groups based on their performance over a 14-year period (1970-1984). One group showed significant decline on either spatial ability or reasoning ability and the other group remained stable on these measures.

What variables are considered “moderators” of intellectual change?

·      Cohort, education, social variables, personality, health, lifestyle, and task familiarity.   (Cohort and familiarity have been studied most)

What is the “cognitive-structural approach” to intelligence?

·      An approach to intelligence that emphasizes the ways in which people conceptualize problems and focuses on modes or styles of thinking.

·      thinking characterized by recognition that truth varies across situations; solutions must be realistic to be reasonable, that ambiguity and contraction are the rule rather than the exception, and that emption and subjective factors play a role in thinking.

According to the section on "Everyday Reasoning and Problem Solving," how does the decision-making ability of older adults compare to younger adults?

·      Unexercised and optimally exercised abilities increase through early adulthood and slowly decline thereafter.

·      Performance on practical problem solving increase thorough middle age

·      Sound measures of practical problem solving can be constructed, but these measures do not tend to relate to each other (problem solving is multidimensional)

·      Emotional salience of problems is an important feature that influences problem-solving style with older adults performing better when problems involve interpersonal and emotional features.

·      The idea that the process of thinking becomes connected to the products of thinking. With adulthood, knowledge becomes more and more specialized based on experience. This type of knowledge becomes increasingly complex throughout adulthood and resistant to change.

Wisdom is most associated with which variables? (Five specific behavioral criteria)

1.  Expertise

2.  Broad abilities

3. Understanding how life problems change

4. Fitting the response with the problem

5. Realizing that life problems are often ambiguous

   Wisdom may be more strongly related to ________ than ____.

experience than age.

What are the 3 major neuroscience methodological perspectives?

·      Neuropsychological approach

·      Correlational approach

·      Activation imaging approach

·      attempts to link measures of cognitive performance to measures of brain structure or functioning.

·      attempts to directly link functional brain activity with cognitive behavioral data.

What type of memory is based on time-dependent information?

·      Prospective Memory

What are the conditions under which older adults accurately predict their memory performance?

·      Prediction after experience; when they have a chance to see the task before doing it.

What is better remembered: novel information or familiar information?

·      Familiar information

According to Piaget, intellectual development is

Piaget’s developmental stages:

1.  Sensorimotor Period (basic skills; infants)

2.  Preoperational Period (young children)

3.  Concrete Operational Period (adolescence/classifying groups of objects—not concepts such as “love”)

4.  Formal Operational Period (abstract concepts)

·      is the use of currently available knowledge to make sense out of incoming information.

·      involves changing one’s though to make it a better approximation of the world of experience.

How does Nancy Denny explain the “classic aging pattern?”

·      Both crystalized and fluid intelligence increase until late adolescence or early adulthood and slowly decline thereafter.

What are the major functions of the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes?

·      Frontal: (higher order executive functions)

·      Temporal: (automatic and social cognition; hippocampus)

·      Parietal: (left and right hemisphere)  

·      Occipital: (visual processing)

What are the major types of non-invasive brain imaging?

·      DTI (diffusion tensor imaging)

·      MRI (noninvasive; produces images of brain structure)

·      fMRI (functioning of the brain)

What is the "frontal lobe theory of aging"

How does "compensation" work? 

·      the older brain works harder to compensate for deterioration in focal regions related to cognitive task.

What is the "scaffolding theory of cognitive aging?"

·      (STAC); suggests that the reason older adults continue to perform at high levels despite neuronal deterioration is because of compensatory scaffolding.

What is "neural plasticity?"

·      used to describe effects of experience on the structure and functions of the neural system.

·      neural stem cells (gives rise to new neurons)

·      environmental enrichment (physical exercise=improved performance)

·      method of loci (mnemonic strategies to improve memory)

How does emotion affect cognitive processing?

·      If information has emotional significance, we will more likely remember it than information that is more neutral in nature.

·      Positivity effect: older adults are more motivated to derive emotional meaning from life and to maintain positive effect.

·       (i.e. color-coded maps, sandpaper letters, etc.)

·       (i.e. appointment book, grocery list, etc.)

·Temporal:

·Parietal:

·Occipital: