Use it or Lose it

Question 1

What will the old to young ratio be by 2025?

Answer 1

More over 60s than under 25s.

Question 2

How many centurions will there be by 2036?

Answer 2

39000

Question 3

Define ageing.

Answer 3

• In the developed world - the age of retirement is considered as the start of old age.
• Change in social role.
• Change in physical and mental abilities.
• Medical view = “collection of changes that most render human beings progressively more likely to die”.
• “Progressive functional decline”

Question 4

What is again all about?

Answer 4

Changing.

• Emotion.
• Social Existence.
• Cognitive Capacity.

Question 5

What do we experience less of when we get older?

Answer 5

• Less negativity in general (more health related).

- Due to greater emotional regulation.

Question 6

How does the media view old people?

Answer 6

• A lot of negative stereotyping.
• Often not shown on tv.
• Portrayed as weak, absent minded, helpless and lonely.
• Forcing us on a quest for eternal youth.
• Portrays old age as a negative.

Question 7

How does psychology view the elderly?

Answer 7

• Less egocentric - language is less “I” focused.

Question 8

What is fluid intelligence?

Answer 8

• Intellectual skills depend on basic information processing skills - speed at which we can analyse information, the capacity of working memory.

Question 9

What is crystallised intelligence?

Answer 9

• Depends on accumulated knowledge and experience, good judgement - valued by individual culture.

Question 10

What did Wilson find about cognitive decline in 2002?

Answer 10

• A regular cognitive decline in later life.

Question 11

What did the Seattle Longitudinal Study find?

Answer 11

• People are actually in their prime later in life.
• Numeric ability and perceptual speed began to decrease after age 25.
• The other 4 increased.
• Intelligence peak for most adults is 35-60 - goes against media stereotype.

Question 12

What did the Seattle Longitudinal Study test for?

Answer 12

• 6 mental abilities are measured for fluid and crystallised intelligence: 1. Verbal ability 2. Verbal memory 3. Inductive reasoning 4. Special Orientation 5. Numeric ability 6. Perceptual speed

Question 13

Define mental capacity.

Answer 13

Capacity for encoding, storing and retrieving information - series of complex interconnected systems which serve different purpose and behave in different ways.

Question 14

What two components is the long term memory made up of?

Answer 14

1. Explicit.

2. Implicit.

Question 15

What components is the explicit memory made up of?

Answer 15

Episodic (biological events) and Semitic (words ideas and concepts.

Question 16

What components is the implicit memory made up of?

Answer 16

Procedural (Priming effect), Emotional conditioning (Conditioned effect).

Question 17

What is in our cognitive reserve?

Answer 17

• Education.
• Occupation.
• Leisure activities of intellectual and social nature.
• Lifestyle.

Question 18

What is ageing not?

Answer 18

• A fair process - differences in the brain reserve capacity.

Question 19

When does ageing begin to take its toll?

Answer 19

• When the Brain Reserve Capacity is depleted past critical threshold.

Question 20

What does Implicit and Explicit memory relate to?

Answer 20

• Age related decline in episodic memory tasks.

Question 21

What does Semitic and Episodic memory relate to?

Answer 21

Age related decline in episodic memory and tasks.

Question 22

How can we preserve out cognitive functions?

Answer 22

• Above average education.
• Complex occupations.
• Stimulating leisure activities saw a higher rate of cognitive development.
• Intellectually stimulating activity - sustained growth .

Question 23

Can you train crystallised and fluid intelligence?

Answer 23

• Your can train crystallised.