Tracy Griffin
Adulthood and Aging | PSY307 A01
05/24/2016
Faculty: Arthur Swisher
Due date: 05/23/2016
Module 5 Assignment 1
In regards to cognitive psychology and the ways in which we define ourselves in terms of individuals, is one of the biggest areas of interest. The area defines the process used in order to acquire, receive, retain and store the information in which is received. During childhood our memory grows, and through adulthood throughout until our middle age, where shortly after we begin to decline in productivity. Initially, when a person grows and changes, their brain begins to change and their cognitive functions worsen. One example being the way in which we appropriately word and express things, begins to decline in fluency and accuracy. (American psychological association, 2006). Studies have shown that the semantic and procedural memory declines the least, while that flashbulb memory declines the most. The amount of large declination varies due to middle age sensitivity and the lack of self-efficiency. The memory initially declines based not on the lack of storage, but merely how they retain and store that information which is being received. Naturally, this happens because the cortex shrinks, leaving a serious lack of blood flow to the brain, and triggers that loss, which is naturally all apart of the aging process. Some natural signs of normal age related memory loss can include the occasional forgetfulness of where we placed something
Once you reach a certain point in your life how do you just forgot? Is there a certain point in your life where your memory is affected? The common question going around is does your memory decline with age. One reason this is important because it will affect all of us. We will all get old and this can greatly affect our health. The research can show how our older age will affect our memory.
Memory is how we as human’s store past events in our minds to retrieve them at a later time. Our ability to remember and retrieve these past memories can be likened to how a computer functions, such as in the information processing approach. This approach gives emphasis to the basic practice of remembering, and the steps involved in our mental functionality (Sigelman & Rider, 2014). As humans, our memory and ability to recall information naturally declines as we age, and there are many possible reasons for this declined ability, such as not having to rehearse information as often after retirement, or the lack of mental exercise and regular maintenance done for the brain.
There are also cognitive changes during middle adulthood. There is a mixed pattern of positive and negative changes in cognitive abilities. Processing speed starts to decrease during this time period however crystallized thought does not decline until older age (pg. 456). Working memory begins to decline however semantic memory continues to increase as we learning throughout our older years (ph 456). Usually most memory decline is during older age and can be attributed to Alzheimer’s disease of dementia.
Doidge mentioned, we think of having a mental decline. We also think that our brain does all the developing as we are growing up, and when we hit the age of adulthood it is done growing. What most people aren’t aware of, is how untrue that really is. As adults, our environments change as we are going through college, jobs, or moving around and those environments all have an impact on the new connections made in our brain. It has been shown why we have that mental decline and how it is connected to our senses. In the BrainHQ article, they talk about how our memory gets worth with age. An example was due to the fact that we start to lose our senses, like eye sight, sense of touch, as well as hearing. With this, we don’t process our experiences as well which results in not being able to store memories like we once used
Experienced therapist can learn how to use the simplistic approach again from the mistakes and lapses of beginning therapist. When a beginning therapist makes a mistake, they go back to the basic skills of psychology, an experienced therapist can learn from this because they could be set in their way of doing things. By going back to the basic, it breaks the cycle of the way they’ve been doing things and allows them to think outside of the box. No matter how many years you’re in the field, there is always room to improve and learn new things. Watching beginning therapist reminds the experienced therapist about the time when they wanted to know everything and learn new ways of doing things.
What I thought was interesting to read in chapter 8, middle adulthood, was the different types of memory. Memory is traditionally viewed as three sequential components: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory. Sensory memory is the memory that stores our information. Next, information that moves into short-term memory, which holds it for only 15 to 25 seconds and our long-term memory holds information on a relatively permanent basis. Though, sensory memory and short-term memory show virtually no weakening in the middle age. Long-term memory, however, declines for some people as age increases. I thought this part about memory was more interesting than others because I originally thought that older individuals have a good long-term
When the recent focus is mainly on studying memory decline that is caused by diseases, memory decline that occurs with normal aging is being disregarded. According to Daselaar and Cabeza, it is important to confine between normal age-related memory decline and the one that is caused by a disease, such as Alzheimer’s, so the person can be provided with the proper treatment at the right time (Daselaar and Cabeza 2008, 577). In my point of view, the main focus of these studies should be on episodic memory, because it is affected the most by aging in comparison to other long-term memory components such as semantic and implicit memory. Denice C. Park and her coworkers have shown in their research (2002) that as verbal knowledge increases across the life span, processing-intensive tasks start to decline since we are on our 20’s. These include for example long term memory, speed of processing, and short term memory; with long-term memory being significantly the most responsive to decline. Since long-term memory has been found to be the most sensitive to age-related cognitive changes, the onset time of this decline has been studied
Taking this course has certainly enabled me to know and understand the scientific reasons for how and why we think and act the way we do in certain situations. Understanding that psychology is the study of the mind and behavior, I think the key to really understanding psychology begins with understanding how the mind works; then everything else starts to make sense.
Memory is a brain function that allows us to retain information and retrieve it when necessary (Nevid, p. 212). Considered as the storage of the past life, memory constitutes our internal biographies and defines who we are as human beings. Obviously, no one wants to experience memory loss. However, occasional memory failures are commonly seen in aging adults. This research paper, therefore, is devoted to understand what kinds of memory loss are associated with normal aging, why memory impairment is age-related, and what we can do to retain and improve our memory.
As we progress through life, it seems that simple things become difficult to recall. The question is does memory decline with age. There have been numerous debates about whether age has any correlation with memory deterioration or if our lapse in the recollection of our memories is contributed to stress we are experiencing. Another important factor that we must consider is the illnesses that are linked to memory loss such as Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. How does a researcher examine memory decline in humans in respect to age? Biology plays a key role in aspect to memory loss and the illnesses associated with memory loss; gender also seems to be a significant factor when discussing memory deficits.
Chronologically, we are going to age regardless of what people like to believe; certain parts of the brain shrink during aging, especially the prefrontal cortex (an area at the front of the frontal lobe) and the hippocampus. Both areas are important to memory (National Institute on Aging, 2015). The hippocampus deals with the formation of long-term memories
As we approach old age, memory complications are inclined to increase. There you are at a business function and you see a colleague across the room. As you walk over, you suddenly realize you can't remember the person's name. The chances are you are not developing Alzheimer's disease, even though many people might be of the assumption that you have already contracted it. You are simply experiencing a breakdown associated with the process of memory, a breakdown that many of us begin to experience in our twenties and that tends to get worse as we reach our fifties. At this age, loss of function appears in many animals and it starts with the inception of sexual maturity.
In Cognitive Psychology, there is a concept known as the lifespan approach to development which explains how our cognitive processes changes as we grow older (Matlin, 2013). To “understand the origins of cognitive skills,” it is important for researchers to study the cognitive processes of both young and old adults (Matlin, 2013, p. 455). However, through the years, many stereotypes have been formed, linking growing older to forgetfulness. For instance, it is believed that as we age, we experience a substantial decline in our cognitive abilities (Matlin, 2013). Such stereotypes may result from sociocultural factors. Nelson (2016), suggests that different cultures have varying views on their aging members. While, some have a positive view on aging other have a negative view (Nelson, 2016). Nonetheless, negative aging stereotypes can cause older adults to believe that they will not pass memory tests. This is known as the stereotype threat effect (Geraci & Miller, 2013). In addition, studies conducted on age -related memory performance have demonstrated that older adults tend to receive significantly lower scores than younger adults. However, the article, “Improving Older Adults’ Memory Performance Using Prior Task Success,” in Psychology And Aging, suggests that experience in completing cognitive tasks can help older adults improve their memory performance (Geraci & Miller, 2013). Yet, before the researchers can examine how to improve memory performance in older
This course has proved to be immensely stimulating and the professor has most definitely imparted knowledge pertaining to psychology in a very comprehensive and relative manner. We start out with the very basics of Psychology and we try to build up from those fundamental concepts such that it is not only easy to retain the concepts but also apply them in everyday definition.
Mental disorders affects 1 out of 5 people each year (Kallivayalil). Psychology has a way of understanding mental disorders and how they function. There are many branches to psychology that leads to many jobs that are beneficial more than most people realize. Majoring in psychology can go a lot farther than just in the medical field. If someone chooses to become a politician they should understand human behavior for the better of their region. Understanding how humans work will provide solutions to improve systems and manage relations with everyone else in the world (Miller). Knowing how people behave and how their brain functions will provide an extra edge when trying to assist them. There are many different forms of psychology which