1. Cognitive Development in Late Adulthood
Does it differ among the elderly?

2. If you could choose your age of death, how old would you be?
What variables does this age depend on?

3. Memory Deliberate vs. Automatic Memory
Our use of contextual cues vs. Older adult use
Confusion over experience vs. imagined events
Recognition memory suffers far less than recall memory
Implications for helping the elderly remember?

4. Memory
Remote memory- older adults report it is better than recent memory
Research does not support this
Intermediate memory is what suffers most, then remote events, THEN recent events
“overlapping stories”
Prospective memory- The “absent minded professor”
remembering to engage in planned activities.
Better with event-based than time-based tasks

5. Cranium task

6. Language Processing
Language comprehension changes very little as long as language is not fast and time is given for processing
Two aspects show age-related losses
Retrieving words from LTM
Planning what to say and how to say it.
related to working memory deficits
Less info can be held at once
How do older adults compensate?
Simpler grammatical structures
“Do you get the gist?”

7. Wisdom Breadth and depth of practical knowledge
Ability to reflect on knowledge to better life
Emotional maturity
Integrative form of creativity
Cross-culturally accepted relationship to age
CEOs, religious leaders, supreme court
Shamen, cheiftains,
CJs Tanzanian story