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Chapter 7: Middle Adulthood

Chapter 7: Middle Adulthood. Module 7.2 Cognitive Development in Middle Adulthood. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT. Does intelligence decline in middle adulthood?. Cognitive Development.

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Chapter 7: Middle Adulthood

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  1. Chapter 7: Middle Adulthood Module 7.2Cognitive Developmentin Middle Adulthood

  2. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

  3. Does intelligence decline in middle adulthood?

  4. Cognitive Development • Cross-sectional studiesclearly showed that older subjects scored less well than younger subjects on traditional IQ tests • Intelligence peaks at 18, stays steady until mid-20s, and declines till end of life • Longitudinal studies, revealed different developmental patterns in intelligence • Stable and even increasing IQ scores until mid-30s and some to mid-50s, then declined 389

  5. Difficulties in Answering the Question • Older research • Cross sectional studies • Cohort effect • Newer research • Longitudinal studies • Practice effect and participant attrition 390

  6. Testing Effects • Practice effect • Attrition • Physical performance portion • Timed • Reaction time slows with age • Results may be due to physical changes not cognitive changes 390

  7. Kinds of Intelligence • FLUID INTELLIGENCEis the ability to deal with new problems and situations • CRYSTALLIZED INTELLIGENCEis the store of information, skills, and strategies that people have acquired through education and prior experiences, and through their previous use of fluid intelligence 391

  8. Relationship Between Fluid and Crystal Intelligence 392

  9. Continuing Competence versus Growing Decline Salthouse suggests four reasons why this discrepancy exists: • Typical measures of cognitive skills tap a different type of cognition than what is required to be successful in particular occupations • Measures of practical intelligence rather than traditional IQ tests to assess intelligence may yield little discrepancy • People can be quite successful professionally and still be on the decline in certain kinds of cognitive abilities • Older people may be successful because they have developed specific kinds of expertise and particular competencies 393

  10. Highly Successful Middle Age People Older, successful people may have developed expertise in their particular occupational area. 394

  11. The Development of Expertise: Separating Experts from Novices • EXPERTISE, the acquisition of skill or knowledge in a particular area, develops as people devote attention and practice • Expert = rely on experience and intuition, process information automatically, use different neural pathways to solve problems • Novice = strictly follow formal rules and procedures, use better strategies and better problem-solving 394

  12. Review and Apply REVIEW • The question of whether intelligence declines in middle adulthood is complicated by limitations in cross-sectional studies and longitudinal studies. • Intelligence appears to be divided into components, some of which decline while others hold steady or even improve. 395

  13. Review and Apply REVIEW • In general, cognitive competence in middle adulthood holds fairly steady despite declines in some areas of intellectual functioning. 395

  14. Review and Apply APPLY • How might crystallized and fluid intelligence work together to help middle-aged people deal with novel situations and problems? 395

  15. Memory: You Must Remember This • According to research on memory changes in adulthood • Most people show only minimal losses • Many exhibit no memory loss in middle adulthood • Memory is viewed in terms of three sequential components • Sensory memory • Short-term memory holds information for 15 to 25 seconds • Long-term memory 395

  16. Schemas in Middle Adulthood • Help people represent the way the world is organized • Aid in categorization and interpretation of new information • Convey cultural information 396

  17. Becoming an Informed Consumer of Development Effective Strategies for Remembering Mnemonics • Get organized • Pay attention • Use encoding specificity phenomenon • Visualize • Rehearse 396

  18. Review and Apply REVIEW • Memory may appear to decline in middle age, but, in fact, long-term memory deficits are probably due to ineffective strategies of storage and retrieval. • People categorize and interpret new information according to the schemes they have developed about how the world is organized and operates. • Mnemonics help people organize material in ways that improve recall. These formal strategies include getting organized, visualizing, rehearsing, paying attention, and using the encoding specificity phenomenon. 397

  19. Review and Apply APPLY • In what ways do schemas give midlife adults an edge over younger adults? 395

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