Chapter 6 Basic Cognitive Functions: Information Processing, Attention, and Memory (adult)

Semantic Memory

Ability to recall word meanings and the factual information. There are no declines in normal older adults Older adults are able to remember word meanings and a broad array of factual information on a comparable level with younger adults.ex. factual information/ name/history/ vocab

Older drivers:

Age alone not sufficient to cause higher accident rates Highest fatality rates are actually in the 35-54 age group. Are more likely to crash at intersections (esp left hand turns). Have more difficulty when required to merge /yield to oncoming traffic. Are able to self-regulate behaviors to compensate for changes experienced in visual and cognitive abilities. Do not drive at night or on interstate highways or situations in which they must make risky left hand turns. More likely to wear seat belts Increased experience can compensate for loss of reaction time.

Attention: Theories of Attention and Aging Why are there age differences in attentional tasks? Inhibitory Deficit Hypothesis -

Aging reduces ability to inhibit irrelevant information (supported by studies based on psychological & electrophysio methods). Older adults < able to block out distracting stimuli when completing a task (Based on Event Related Potential - a measure of brains pattern of electrical activity in response to stimuli) Patterns of responses suggest older adults have problems in prefrontal cortex (area involved in control of inhibiting irrelevant information) Eeg studies show that older adults < likely to suppress irrelevant info, resulting in increased frontal activity and poor memory performance Hypothesis implies that middle age and older adults perform best when there are few distractions.

Working Memory - How is it measured?

Assessed by assigning a task to participants that prevents them from consciously rehearsing the info they are supposed to remember.

Reaction Time

Basic element of processing speed Measured by asking participants to complete an action (e.g., pushing a computer key when the screen flashes a target) Distractor = stimuli that do not fit criteria for target

Retrieval-Induced Forgetting ("Tip of the Tongue" phenomenon)

Being unable to remember information that a person knew at one time in the past. Observed more in older adults in both laboratory and everyday situations. Young adults occasionally experience this effect when trying to retrieve an abstract word; older adults are more likely to forget a person's name. Declines experienced by older adults may be due to age related neural declines in the area of the brain used for phonological production ex. something that on the tip of your tongue but you jest can't remember it)

parallel processing (Simple search):

Can scan entire array at once Older and younger adults perform at similarly high levels (both find target quickly and accurately)ex. brain see bird divide visual scene of the bird color,depth,form,movement,

Reaction Time Brinley Plot

Deviations of dots from the diagonal line shows the extent to which older adults are disproportionately slower as the task becomes more challenging for young adults

What safeguards are needed as number of older drivers increase in US?

Driving tests Safety classes Substitute roundabouts for intersections Adjusting head restraints, steering wheel, mirror. Collision avoidance systems

Abilities that decline

Episodic memory Source memory False memory Tip-of-the-tongue (names) Prospective memory

Driving and Aging

Factors that can potentially impair older adults ability to drive Changes in basic cognitive functions with age. Changes in the visual system (e.g., loss of visual acuity, increased sensitivity to glare, difficulty seeing in the dark). Physical changes can limit ability to get in and out of the car, fasten a seat-belt, change the seat position, turn the steering wheel, or cope with a breakdown. Medications used to treat chronic conditions can impair driving ability due to side effects (e.g., drowsiness, confusion, and dizziness).

Abilities that do not decline

Flashbulb memory Semantic memory Procedural memory Implicit memory Autobiographical memory ("reminiscence bump")

Components of working memory (Badeley, 2003) Phonological loop:

Holds auditory memory hear/giving a speech

Components of working memory (Badeley, 2003) Visuospatial scratch pad:

Holds memory for information that is seen. tv

Components of working memory (Badeley, 2003) Central executive:

Integrates the other three components of working memory.(oversize the three other component)

Remote Memory

Involves the recall of information from the distant past. MYTH: Older people can remember information for many years in the past better than they can remember more recent information. EXCEPTION: (when it come to the person on life) Autobiographical memory(related to your life) [or the recall of information from a person's own past]. Many individuals experience a reminiscence bump of very clear memories for the ages of from about 10 to 30 years (effect is particularly strong for happy memories).ex. remembering thing 10 to 30 age/ remembering things when they young kids because first time experiences like graduating

Working Memory

Keeps information temporarily available and active in consciousness Used when trying to learn new info or recall information learned previously. Linked closely with attention (required to handle multiple thought processes) Working memory requires focus and attention on task

*Effects of Aging on Long Term Memory In Adulthood Episodic Memory

LTM for events that took place in the past Older adults experience impairments both in encoding(learing it) and retrieving information. Depends on the integrity of connections among frontal cortex, temporal and parietal lobes and areas of subcortex (thalamus) In normal aging, structural changes in the brain compensated by heightened activation of the prefrontal cortex. Based on Scaffolding theory: Older adults are able to recruit alternative neural networks as needed by task demands to make up for losses suffered elsewhere in the brain. ex. remeber thing that happend close in time than longer in time

Implicit Memory

Long-term memory for information that people acquire without intending to do so. Does not appear to be affected by the aging process.

Choice reaction task

Make one response for one stimulus and another for a different stimulus Push "f" button on keyboard when you see red "N" and "j" button when you see green "N"

Simple reaction time task

Make response as soon as target appears Push f button on keyboard when you see red "N"

Younger drivers:

More likely to drink and drive and to drive while distracted.

Memory Training Studies What benefits for older adults?

Practice improves memory task performance Strategy training can increase self efficacy Support during encoding (e.g., additional cues such as seeing pics and words when learning a word list - "deep processing") Training that taps into areas of expertise Memory training can alter brain: e.g., method of loci training altered white matter density Virtual reality helped increase older adults long term memory (especially verbal memory).

How is it tested?

Presenting participants with a task that involves manipulating but not remembering information E.g., participants presented with a list of words and asked to place them into categories but not to recall them. Later are asked to recall the words previously instructed to only categorize. Priming: show information that leads participants to think of certain things, topics, or situations. E.g., participants see a list of words containing the word "Apple". Later are shown the word fragment such as "A _ P_ _" and asked to fill in remaining three blanks. If participants respond "Apple", implicit memory is demonstrated.

*Reaction Time

Reaction time of a young adult is lower than older adults ( younger adults is faster than old adult) oldeer adult reponsed longer

Flashbulb Memory

Recall of important and distinctive events that stand out from other memories of past events When older adults form such memories they are likely [as younger adults] to recall them correctly.ex do you know what you was doing when 911 happened

Procedural Memory

Recall of the actions involved in particular tasks. Holds up well with age Contributes to the ability of older adults to compensate for some of their loss of speed and working memory in diverse areas ex. reading/ driving/ riding a bike

Components of working memory (Badeley, 2003) Episodic buffer:

Responsible for recalling information in long-term memory by bringing it temporarily back into working memory.

Effects of Aging on Long Term Memory In Adulthood/Long-term memory

Storage of information that is held for a period of time ranging from several minutes to a lifetime. Process includes Encoding - when learning info initially Storage - Info kept in long term Retrieval - when needed to use it later on.

*Method#2: Conjunction search

Target differs from distractors in more than one way Involves serial processing - because each stimulus must be examined to determined whether it has all qualities of the target. The larger the number of stimuli to scan, the longer the participants will take to decide whether the target is present or not.

*Method # 1: Simple search

Target differs from other stimuli by only one feature Participants can generally reach high levels of performance quickly across trials Thus, reaction time ends not to increase as number of items in stimulus array gets larger

Processing speed

The amount of time it takes for an individual to analyze incoming information from the senses, formulate decisions, and then prepare a response on the basis of that analysis. One of the most widely studied areas of cognition and aging Reflects integrity of the CNS

Prospective Memory

The recall of events to be performed in the future. Older people appear to have more prospective memory slips than do younger adults. The more heavily a prospective memory task involves planning and the frontal lobe, the disadvantaged the older adults seem to be. What can help? If aware of prospective memory problems, older adults can take advantage of reminders (effective for adults in the young-old age category)ex. groceries/ bills/ daily living activies

Source Memory

The recall of where or how a person acquires information. Older adults Have greater difficulty on source memory tasks when they must judge where they saw an item on a previous occasion. Older adults also more susceptible to false or illusory memories in which they say they remember something they never happened. False memories measured using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott [DRM] paradigm. Few people are immune from this effect but when warned, younger participants are better able than older adults to avoid the false memory implantation ex. looking at a list of words the relate to boat but boat wasn't on the list

*Reaction Time

Theories that explain slowing of reaction time with age

Working Memory Example of the Processing of Working Memory:

Think of the numbers that are part of your address (inc zip code) and add those numbers together as digits Now think of your phone number and add those as single digits to your previous sum Finally add your age to this number. What is the total?

Good inhibitory control =

able to turn off naming of color based on word.

*serial processing (Conjunction search) -

because each stimulus must be examined to determined whether it has all qualities of the target. The larger the number of stimuli to scan, the longer the participants will take to decide whether the target is present or not.(exmine each stimlus to see if it have all the qualities of the target)

psychology

change in reaction time internal distraction causing anxiety

biology

change in vision

(e.g., on Stroop task)Response time and accuracy compared when

color and word match with performance when color and word do not match

Attention Types of Attention Tasks: Visual Search Tasks (cont.) Both younger and older adults perform less efficiently on

conjunction search tasks than they do on simple search tasks (but cost of performance is higher for older adults) Older adults have greater experience in making decisions in real life settings which benefits them when scanning environments When compared to younger adults on a search tasks that included context to guide their attention, older adults were more likely than younger adults to benefit from background cues. Older adults can benefit from training that gives them practice and guidance in performing even very difficult conjunction searches

sociolcultural

driving necessary to live independent

Model of Driving Self Regulation (Donofrio & colleagues, 2009)

incorporated Biopsychosocial factors involved in driving. Whether older adults continue to drive depends on a number of psychological and sociocultural factors Psychological: including feelings of self-confidence, desire to get out of the home, need for independence, importance for self worth, and perceived health. Socio-cultural factors include whether an older adult lives alone, can get rides with others, has access to public transportation

*Working Memory Brain's default network A circuit in the brain that

is active when the brain is at rest. Includes hippocampus, parts of prefrontal cortex, parietal lobe, temporal lobe, and part of cingulate cortex involved in visualization. Network becomes deactivated during tasks involved in working memory Older adults show decreased activation of default network and less able to deactivate during memory tasks.(when brain at rest) Have fewer resources to devote to info that is needed to be retained. ex. listening and taking notes during lecture the brain deactivate but older adults can't do it because they won't able to focus

Attention Types of Attention Tasks Sustained Attention Task:

participants must respond when they see a particular target appear out of a continuous stream of stimuli. e.g., press any key when they see an "X" moving onto a computer screen containing all "Y"s. Some conditions, experimenter provides cues to give participants notice about whether and where to look for target before it appears Older adults typically have more difficulty in sustained attention task than do younger adults Experience can compensate for age-related changes in sustained attention. E.g., in simulated air traffic control experiment, older adults with deficits in lab attentional tasks, performed well on complex tasks required in situations encountered on job on daily basis

*General slowing hypothesis

proposes that increase in reaction time reflects general decline of info processing speed within the nervous system of the aging individual.(people are slower to react as they get older they slow down how they can process information involve nervous system)

*Age Complexity Hypothesis

proposes that through a slowing of central processes in the nervous system, age difference increase as tasks become more complex and the older adult's processing resources are stretched more to their limit.( the longer the task is the work the older Adult do )

"N-back" task is commonly used

test working memory Participants are presented a sequence of items one by one. For each item participants need to decide if the current item is the same as the one presented N trials ago. N can be 1 trail, 2 trail, 3 trials etc. The higher the number the more difficult the task(ex. game remembering 2 things fish and car if got it correct will get hard each time)

Attention Types of Attention Tasks Research on attention and aging try to determine whether older adults have difficulty with Inhibitory control:

turning off one response while performing another Decreases with age With practice, healthy older adults can activate different areas of the brain to raise performance (e.g., on Stroop task) to comparable levels.

Attention Types of Attentional Tasks 2 methods used in studies on attention and aging involve

visual search tasks,which require that observer locate a specific target among set of distractors.