Shared Flashcard Set

Details

Psych 250 Exam 4
Later Life Cognitive Development
15
Psychology
Not Applicable
04/12/2008

Additional Psychology Flashcards

 


 

Cards

Term
Demographics of Older Adults
Definition

life expectancy has dramatically increased

(late life expectancy- time we can expect to live after 65 - has increased by 20 years)

 

birth rates are declining, resulting in an older average population

 

% of people over 65 has risen from 4.1% to 12.4%

Term
Two old stages
Definition

young-old: 60-79, good health, live comfortably

 

old-old: over 79 yrs, poor health, poor, old-age disabilities

Term
Life span
Definition

the upper boundary of life

~105 for humans

Term
life expectancy
Definition

person's 50/50 chance at birth of living to any given age, ~76.7 in US

 

women tend to live longer (~80)

LE for African Americans is shorter than for whites

around age 85 a life-expectancy crossover occurs in that surviving african americans live slightly longer than survive white americans

Term
later life memory
Definition

low expectations can create low self-efficacy, which produces self-fulfilling prophecy

 

perform more difficult memory tasks poorly

 

time sensitive testing produces poor results

 

divided attention tasks are difficult

Term
working memory
Definition

limited capacity gateway system

contains all material that we can keep in awareness at a single time

allows material to be manipulated

 

declines beginning in 20s

Term
semantic memories
Definition

basic factual knowledge you hold

long lasting

crystallized memory

moderately resilient with age

Term
episodic memories
Definition

involves recall of ongoing events of daily life

negatively affected by age

Term
procedural memories
Definition

longest lasting

habitual thought patterns and actions

the last to go in patients with many brain diseases

Term
individual differences in cognition
Definition

huge differences in performance with age

45-60% maintain stable level into their 70s

10-15% show increase until mid 70s

roughly 30% decline by 60s

Term
factors that predict cognition in older adults
Definition

education

lifestyle

work

health status

(chronic disease, physical fitness, exercise)

Term
Retirement
Definition

~65 yrs

only 1 in 10 US adults working after 64

we can expect to live about 20 yrs after retirement

 

often made possible through government funding

some countries do not have retirement

Term
social security
Definition

us government retirement support program

 

meant to reduce late life poverty

current workers support employees

worker/retiree ratio will not support it

Term
corporate private pension plans
Definition

employee and employer contributes a portion of each paycheck to a growing account

 

low wage jobs do not have pensions

Term
healthcare
Definition

medicare - public medical insurance for people 65+

 

worker/retiree ratio will not support it

increases in healthcare outpace inflation

 

SS and medicare major political issues

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