Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T22:48:40.932Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Cognitive processes and ageing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Paul Verhaeghen
Edited by
Ian Stuart-Hamilton
Paul Verhaeghen
Affiliation:
Georgia Institute of Technology
Ian Stuart-Hamilton
Affiliation:
University of Glamorgan
Get access

Summary

OVERVIEW

This chapter presents a critical survey of cognitive changes in later life. It examines speed of processing, changes in cognitive skills, intelligence, assembled cognition and means of coping with cognitive limitations in later life.

Introduction

Let me start this chapter by letting you in on a little secret. There is no such thing as the psychology of normal ageing. Allow me to illustrate this. As I write this paragraph, our 2-month-old baby son is cooing in the background. Our baby obviously has a human mind, but this mind is very different from his parents', not just quantitatively (i.e. a temporarily dimmer version of the mash-up between my wife and me), but qualitatively as well (we have no idea what his cooing signifies beyond a quiet and quite brittle delight; likewise, he doesn't have a clue what we are telling him). There is a psychology of development, and it is very much needed: a child's mind is impenetrable to an adult. There is, however, no need for a separate psychology of ageing: older adults are just like young adults, except perhaps a little slower, a little less fazed by the hassles of life and a lot more mature. Put simply, changes over the adult lifespan tend to be quantitative, not qualitative.

Type
Chapter
Information
An Introduction to Gerontology , pp. 159 - 193
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Anstey, K.J. and Christensen, H. (2000) Education, activity, health, blood pressure and apolipoprotein E as predictors of cognitive change in old age: a review, Gerontology, 46, 163–77.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bahrick, H.P. (1984) Semantic memory content in the permastore: 50 years of memory for Spanish learned in school, Journal of Experimental Psychology. General, 113, 1–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bahrick, H.P., Bahrick, P.O. and Wittlinger, R.P. (1975) Fifty years of memory for names and faces: a cross-sectional approach, Journal of Experimental Psychology. General, 104, 54–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ball, K., Owsley, C., Sloane, M.E.et al. (1993) Visual attention problems as a predictor of vehicle crashes among older drivers, Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, 34(11), 3110–23.Google ScholarPubMed
Baltes, M. and Baltes, P.B. (1990) Successful aging: perspectives from the behavioral sciences. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baltes, P.B. (1997) On the incomplete architecture of human ontogeny: selection, optimization, and compensation as foundation of developmental theory, American Psychologist, 52, 366–80.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baltes, P.B. and Staudinger, U.M. (2000) Wisdom: a metaheuristic (pragmatic) to orchestrate mind and virtue toward excellence, American Psychologist, 55, 122–36.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blazer, D.G., Hays, J.C., Fillenbaum, G.G.et al. (1997) Memory complaint as a predictor of cognitive decline, Journal of Aging and Health, 9, 171–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bohnstedt, M., Fox, P.J. and Kohatsu, N.D. (1994) Correlates of Mini-Mental Status Examination scores among elderly demented patients: the influence of race-ethnicity, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 47, 1381–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bonnesen, J.L. and Burgess, E.O. (2004) Senior moments: the acceptability of an ageist phrase, Journal of Aging Studies, 18, 123–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bopp, K.L. and Verhaeghen, P. (2005) Aging and verbal memory span: a meta-analysis, Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 60, 223–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brinley, J.F. (1965) Cognitive sets, speed and accuracy of performance in the elderly, in Welford, A.T. and Birren, J.E. (eds), Behavior, aging and the nervous system. Springfield, IL: Thomas, 114–49.Google Scholar
Cabeza, R. (2002) Hemispheric asymmetry reduction in old adults: the HAROLD model, Psychology and Aging, 17, 85–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cerella, J., Poon, L.W. and Williams, D.H. (1980) Age and the complexity hypothesis, in Poon, L.W. (ed.), Aging in the 1980's. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 332–40.Google Scholar
Charness, N. and Bosman, , , E.A. (1995) Expertise and age, in Maddox, G. (ed.), Encyclopedia of aging, 2nd edn. New York: Springer, 352–4.Google Scholar
Clarkson-Smith, L. and Hartley, A.A. (1990) The game of bridge as an exercise in working memory and reasoning, Journal of Gerontology, 45, P233–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Colcombe, S.J. and Kramer, A.F. (2003) Fitness effects on the cognitive function of older adults: a meta-analytic study, Psychological Science, 14, 25–130.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Colcombe, S.J., Kramer, A.F., Erickson, K.I.et al. (2004) Cardiovascular fitness, cortical plasticity, and aging, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 11, 3316–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colonia-Willner, R. (1998) Practical intelligence at work: relationship between aging and cognitive efficiency among managers in a bank environment, Psychology and Aging, 13, 45–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cutler, S.J. and Grams, A.E. (1988) Correlates of self-reported everyday memory problems, Journal of Gerontology, 43, 82–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Echt, K.V., Morrell, R.W. and Park, D.C. (1998) Effects of age and training formats on basic computer skill acquisition in older adults, Educational Gerontology, 24, 3–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eichenbaum, H. (2003) How does the hippocampus contribute to memory?, Trends in Cognitive Science, 7, 427–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engle, R.W., Kane, M.J. and Tuholski, S.W. (1999) Individual differences in working memory capacity and what they tell us about controlled attention, general fluid intelligence and functions of the prefrontal cortex, in Miyake, A. and Shah, P. (eds), Models of working memory: mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control. Cambridge University Press, 102–34.Google Scholar
Freund, A.M. and Baltes, P.B. (2002) Life-management strategies of selection, optimization, and compensation: measurement by self-report and construct validity, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 642–62.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Galenson, D.W. (1999) Quantifying artistic success: ranking French painters – and paintings – from Impressionism to Cubism. NBER Working Papers 7407. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Hagberg, B., Samuelsson, G., Lindberg, B.et al. (1991) Stability and change of personality in old age and its relation to survival, Journal of Gerontology, 46, 285–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Heine, M.K., Ober, B.A. and Shenaut, G.K. (1999) Naturally occurring and experimentally induced tip-of-the-tongue experiences in three adult age groups, Psychology and Aging, 14, 445–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henry, J.D., MacLeod, M., Phillips, L.H.et al. (2004) A meta-analytic review of age effects on prospective memory, Psychology and Aging, 19, 27–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hess, T.M. (2005) Memory and aging in context, Psychological Bulletin, 131, 383–406.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Holliday, S.G. and Chandler, M.J. (1986) Wisdom: explorations in adult competence. New York: Karger.Google Scholar
Horn, J. (1970) Organization of data on life-span development of human abilities, in Goulet, R. and Baltes, P.B. (eds), Life-span developmental psychology: research and theory. New York: Academic Press, 423–66.Google Scholar
Kausler, D.H. (1991) Experimental psychology, cognition, and human aging, 2nd edn. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kemper, S., Herman, R.E. and Liu, C.J. (2004) Sentence production by younger and older adults in controlled contexts, Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 58, 220–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LaVoie, D. and Light, , , L.L. (1994) Adult age differences in repetition priming: a meta-analysis, Psychology and Aging, 9, 539–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lehman, H.C. (1953) Age and achievement. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Li, K.Z.H., Lindenberger, U., Freund, A.M.et al. (2001) Walking while memorizing: age-related differences in compensatory behavior, Psychological Science, 12, 230–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lindenberger, U. and Baltes, P.B. (1997) Intellectual functioning in old and very old age: cross-sectional results from the Berlin Aging Study, Psychology and Aging, 12, 410–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Manly, J.J. (2008) Critical issues in cultural neuropsychology: profit from diversity, Neuropsychology Review, 18, 179–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Manly, J.J., Byrd, D.A., Touradji, P.et al. (2004) Acculturation, reading level, and neuropsychological test performance among African American elders, Applied Neuropsychology, 1, 37–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCrae, R.R., Arenberg, D. and Costa, P.T. (1987) Declines in divergent thinking with age: cross-sectional, longitudinal, and cross-sequential analyses, Psychology and Aging, 2, 130–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McEvoy, S.P., Stevenson, M.R., McCartt, A.T.et al. (2005) Role of mobile phones in motor vehicle crashes resulting in hospital attendance: a case-crossover study, British Medical Journal, 331, 428–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McGue, M., Bacon, S. and Lykken, D.T. (1993) Personality stability and change in early adulthood: a behavioral genetic analysis, Developmental Psychology, 29, 96–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owsley, C., Ball, K., McGwin, G.et al. (1998) Visual processing impairment and risk of motor vehicle crash among older adults, Journal of the American Medical Association, 279, 1083–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Park, D.C. (1994) Aging, cognition, and work, Human Performance, 7, 181–205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, D.C. and Hall Gutchess, A. (2000) Cognitive aging and everyday life. in Park, D.C. and Schwarz, N. (eds), Cognitive aging: a primer. Philadelphia: Psychology Press, 217–32.Google Scholar
Park, D.C., Polk, T., Mikels, J.et al. (2001) Cerebral aging: integration of brain and behavioral models of cognitive function, Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 3, 151–65.Google ScholarPubMed
Park, D.C., Lautenschlager, G., Hedden, T.et al. (2002) Models of visuospatial and verbal memory across the adult life span, Psychology and Aging, 17, 299–320.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Plomin, R. and Nesselroade, J.R. (1990) Behavioral genetics and personality change, Journal of Personality, 58, 191–220.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rapp, M., Krampe, R.T. and Baltes, P.B. (2005) Adaptive task prioritization in aging: selective resource allocation to postural control is preserved in Alzheimer disease, American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 14, 52–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raz, N. (2000) Aging of the brain and its impact on cognitive performance: integration of structural and functional findings, in Craik, F.I.M. and Salthouse, T.A. (eds), Handbook of aging and cognition, 2nd edn. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1–90.Google Scholar
Raz, N., Lindenberger, U., Rodrigue, K.M.et al. (2005) Regional brain changes in aging healthy adults: general trends, individual differences, and modifiers, Cerebral Cortex, 15, 1676–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rhodes, S.R. (1983) Age-related differences in work attitudes and behavior: a review and conceptual analysis, Psychological Bulletin, 93, 328–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, B.W. and DelVecchio, W.F. (2000) The rank-order consistency of personality from childhood to old age: a quantitative review of longitudinal studies, Psychological Bulletin, 126, 3–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roberts, B.W., Walton, K. and Viechtbauer, W. (2006) Patterns of mean-level change in personality traits across the life course: a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies, Psychological Bulletin, 132, 1–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rubin, D.C., Wetzler, S.E. and Nebes, R.D. (1986) Autobiographical memory across the adult lifespan, in Rubin, D.C. (ed.), Autobiographical memory. Cambridge University Press, 202–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salthouse, T.A. (1984) Effects of age and skill in typing, Journal of Experimental Psychology. General, 113, 345–71.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Salthouse, T.A. (1991) Theoretical perspectives on cognitive aging. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Salthouse, T.A. (1996) The processing-speed theory of adult age differences in cognition, Psychological Review, 103, 403–28.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schaie, K.W. (1994) The course of adult intellectual development, American Psychologist, 49, 304–13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schaie, K.W. (2005) What can we learn from longitudinal studies of adult intellectual development?, Research in Human Development, 2, 133–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmidt, F.L., Hunter, J.E. and Outerbridge, A.N. (1986) The impact of job experience and ability on job knowledge, work sample performance, and supervisory ratings of job performance, Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 432–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shimamura, A.P., Berry, J.A., Mangels, J.A.et al. (1995) Memory and cognitive abilities in academic professors: evidence for successful aging, Psychological Science, 6(5), 271–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simonton, D.K. (1994) Greatness: who makes history and why. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Singer, T., Verhaeghen, P., Ghisletta, P.et al. (2003) The fate of cognition in very old age: six-year longitudinal findings in the Berlin Aging Study (BASE), Psychology and Aging, 18, 318–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sliwinski, M., Lipton, R.B., Buschke, H.et al. (1996) The effect of pre-clinical dementia on estimates of normal cognitive function in aging, Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 51, 217–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spencer, W.D. and Raz, N. (1995) Differential effects of aging on memory for content and context: a meta-analysis, Psychology and Aging, 10, 527–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Taylor, J.L., Miller, T.P. and Tinklenberg, J.R. (1992) Correlates of memory decline: a 4-year longitudinal study of older adults with memory complaints, Psychology and Aging, 7, 185–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thornton, W.J.L. and Dumke, H.A. (2005) Age differences in everyday problem-solving and decision making effectiveness: a meta-analytic review, Psychology and Aging, 20, 85–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Verhaeghen, P. (2003) Aging and vocabulary scores: a meta-analysis, Psychology and Aging, 18, 332–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Verhaeghen, P. (2006) Reaction time, in Maddox, G.L. (ed.), The encyclopedia of aging, 4th edn. New York: Springer-Verlag, 114–26.Google Scholar
Verhaeghen, P., Borchelt, M. and Smith, J. (2003) The relation between cardiovascular and metabolic disease and cognition in very old age: cross-sectional and longitudinal findings from the Berlin Aging Study, Health Psychology, 22, 559–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verhaeghen, P. and Cerella, J. (2002) Aging, executive control, and attention: a review of meta-analyses, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 26, 849–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Verhaeghen, P., Geraerts, N. and Marcoen, A. (2000) Memory complaints, coping, and well-being in old age: a systemic approach, The Gerontologist, 40, 540–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Verhaeghen, P., Marcoen, A. and Goossens, L. (1992) Improving memory performance in the aged through mnemonic training: a meta-analytic study, Psychology and Aging, 7, 242–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Verhaeghen, P., Marcoen, A. and Goossens, L. (1993) Facts and fiction about memory aging: a quantitative integration of research findings, Journals of Gerontology. Series B. Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 48, 157–71.Google ScholarPubMed
Verhaeghen, P. and Salthouse, T.A. (1997) Meta-analyses of age-cognition relations in adulthood: estimates of linear and non-linear age effects and structural models, Psychological Bulletin, 122, 231–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Waldman, D.A. and Avolio, B.J. (1986) A meta-analysis of age differences in job performance, Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 33–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×