p80mcs1-Adult Cognitive Development.ppt

Adult Cognitive Development M Cecil Smith, Ph.D. Northern Illinois University /~smith/whatsnew.htm To download a copy of these slides Adult Cognitive Development traditional v. contemporary views of intelligence theories of change in cognitive abilities cognitive changes: attention, perception, memory what is IQ? fluid v. crystallized intelligence life span views on intelligence effects of intellectual “exercise” new theories of intelligence Other dimensions of intelligence: expertise, creativity, wisdom Traditional views of adult intelligence “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Intellectual decline is inevitable with aging This is the decrementalist perspective Contemporary views of adult intelligence “You’re not getting older, you’re getting better!” This is the continued-potential perspective Lifespan development consists of dual processes of gain and loss Theories of Changes in Cognitive Abilities Across Adulthood Traditional psychometric approach: measure “IQ” Piaget’s stage theory Formal operations in adulthood Neo-Piagetian theories Post-formal thinking skills Information processing theories: cognitive science Pragmatic theories of intellectual aging Denney’s theory of optimally exercised and unexercise abilities Changes in attentional capacities Attention: the mechanisms used to prepare to process stimuli, focus on what to process, and determine how much to process the stimuli Selective attention Automatic vs. effortful processing Divided attention Sustained attention Older adults’ attentional abilities are lower compared to younger adults Changes in perceptual processing speed Perceptual speed accounts for 80% of age-related variance in performance on memory tasks Reaction time tasks press button quickly as possible every time light flashes Older adults’ performance on timed tests is adversely affected Can observed cognitive declines be attributed solely to slowing of perceptual processing? Age changes in memory encoding, storage, and retrieval