1. Cognitive Development in Middle Adulthood
Chapter 15
Pages

2. Cognitive Development
In middle adulthood, the cognitive demands of everyday life extend to new and sometimes more challenging situations
Middle adulthood is a time of expanding responsibilities – on the job, in the community, and at home
To juggle diverse roles effectively middle aged adults call on a wide array of intellectual abilities
Including accumulated knowledge, verbal fluency, memory, rapid analysis of information, reasoning, problem solving, and expertise in their areas of specialization

3. Changes in Mental Abilities
Widely held stereotypes exist of older adults as forgetful and confused
Most cognitive aging research has focused on deficits while neglecting cognitive stability and gains
Different aspects of cognitive functioning show different patterns of change
Although declines occur in some areas, most people display cognitive competence, especially in familiar contexts, and some attain outstanding accomplishment
Some apparent decrements in cognitive aging result from weaknesses in the research itself
Overall, the evidence supports an optimistic view of adult cognitive potential

4. Changes in Mental Abilities
Research on cognitive aging in middle adulthood reflects the core assumptions of the lifespan perspective
Development as multidimensional
The combined result of biological, psychological, and social forces
Development as multidirectional
The joint expression of growth and decline, with the precise mix varying across abilities and individuals
Development as plastic
Open to change, depending on how a person’s biological and environmental history combines with current life conditions

5. Changes in Mental Abilities: Cohort Effects
Research using intelligence tests sheds light on the widely held belief that intelligence inevitably declines in middle and late adulthood and the brain deteriorates
Although many early cross-sectional studies showed a peak in performance at age 35 followed by a steep drop into old age
BUT… Longitudinal research starting in the 1920s revealed an age-related INCREASE in performance
To explain this contradiction, K. Warner Schaie used a sequential design, combining longitudinal and cross-sectional approaches
Seattle Longitudinal Study
In 1956, people ranging in age from were tested cross-sectionally
Then, at regular intervals, longitudinal follow-ups were conducted and new samples added, yielding a total of 5,000 participants, 5 cross-sectional comparisons, and longitudinal data spanning more than 60 years
Results
Findings on 5 mental abilities showed the typical cross-sectional drop after the mid-30s
But longitudinal trends for those abilities revealed modest gains in midlife, sustained into the 50s and the early 60s, after which performance decreased gradually

6. Changes in Mental Abilities: Cohort Effects
Cohort effects are largely responsible for this difference
In cross-sectional research, each new generation experienced better health and education than the one before it
Also, the tests given may tap abilities less often used by older individuals whose lives no longer require that they learn information for its own sake but, instead, skillfully solve real-world problems

7. Changes in Mental Abilities: Crystallized and Fluid intelligence
Only certain mental abilities follow the longitudinal pattern in the previous chart
There are 2 types of intelligence that seem to explain these findings
Crystallized intelligence – skills that depend on accumulated knowledge and experience, good judgment, and mastery of social conventions
Largely influenced by culture
Measured on intelligence tests by performance on vocabulary, general information, verbal comprehension, and logical reasoning
Fluid intelligence – depends more heavily on basic information-processing skills – ability to detect relationships among visual stimuli, speed of analyzing information, and capacity of working memory
Measured on intelligence tests by items involving spatial visualization, digit span, letter-number sequencing, and symbol search

8. Changes in Mental Abilities: Crystallized and Fluid intelligence
Crystallized intelligence increases steadily through middle adulthood
Fluid intelligence begins to decline in the 20s
These trends have been found repeatedly in investigations in which younger and older participants had similar education and general health, largely correcting for cohort effects
In one study of year olds
Verbal (crystallized) IQ peaked between ages and did not decline until the 80s
Nonverbal (fluid) IQ dropped steadily over the entire age range
The midlife rise in crystallized abilities makes sense
Adults are constantly adding to their knowledge and skills at work, at home, and in leisure activities

9. Changes in Mental Abilities: Schaie’s Seattle Longitudinal Study
Schaie found that there are 5 factors that gain in early and middle adulthood: verbal ability, inductive reasoning, verbal memory, spatial orientation, and numeric ability
These factors include both crystallized and fluid skills
Findings confirmed that middle-aged adults are intellectually “in their prime”
A 6th ability, perceptual speed, a fluid skill decreased from the 20s to the late 80s
A pattern that fits with research indicating that cognitive processing slows as people get older
Late in life, fluid factors (spatial orientation, numeric ability, and perceptual speed) show greater decrements than crystallized factors (verbal ability, inductive reasoning, and verbal memory)

10. Age in Years

11. Explaining Changes in Mental Abilities
Some theorists believe that a general slowing of central nervous system functioning underlies nearly all age-related declines in cognitive performance
Many studies show that scores on speeded tasks mirror the regular, age-related decline in fluid-task performance
Reasons why fluid intelligence (basic information processing skills) declines earlier, but crystallized abilities gain and then stabilize
The decrease in basic processing, while substantial after age 45, may not be great enough to affect many well-practiced performances until quite late in life
Adults can often compensate for cognitive limitations by drawing on their cognitive strengths
As people discover that they are no longer as good as they once were at certain tasks, they accommodate, shifting to activities that depend less on cognitive efficiency and more on accumulated knowledge
Ex. The basketball player becomes a coach and the once quick-witted salesperson becomes a manager

12. Changes in Mental Abilities: Individual and Group Differences
The age trends mask large individual differences
Adults who use their intellectual skills seem to maintain them longer
In the Seattle study, declines were delayed for people with above-average education, complex occupations, and stimulating leisure activities that included reading, traveling, attending cultural events, and participating in clubs and professional organizations
i.e. if you don’t use it you lose it
People with flexible personalities, lasting marriages (especially to a cognitively high-functioning partner), and absence of cardiovascular and other chronic diseases were likely to maintain mental abilities well into late adulthood
i.e., individuals who experience less stress tend to sustain cognitive abilities longer
Being economically well-off is linked to favorable cognitive development
Probably because SES is associated with many of the stressful factors mentioned above
In early and middle adulthood, women outperformed men on verbal tasks and perceptual speed, while men excelled at spatial skills
However, overall, changes in mental abilities over the adult years were similar for men and women

13. Changes in Mental Abilities: Individual and Group Differences
Cohort effects were evident in comparisons of baby boomers, now middle-aged, with the previous generation at the same age
On verbal memory, inductive reasoning, and spatial orientation, the baby boom cohort performed substantially better probably because of generational advances in education, technology, environmental stimulation, and health care
These gains are expected to continue: Today’s children, adolescents, and adults of all ages attain substantially higher mental test scores than same-age individuals born just a decade or two earlier
Adults who maintained higher levels of perceptual speed tended to be advantaged in other cognitive capacities
Probably because thinking faster allows you to consider more things in a shorter period of time

14. Information Processing
Information-processing researchers interested in adult development usually use this model to guide research on different aspects of thinking (we went over it in chapter 5)
As processing speed slows, certain aspects of attention and memory decline
Yet, midlife is also a time of great expansion in cognitive competence as adults apply their vast knowledge and life experiences to problem solving in the everyday world

15. Speed of Processing
On both simple reaction-time tasks (pushing a butting in response to a light) and complex reaction-time tasks (pushing a left-hand button to a blue light and a right-hand button to a yellow light), response time increases steadily from the early 20s into the 90s (meaning reaction takes longer)
The more complex the situation, the more disadvantaged (slower) older adults are
Researchers agree that changes in the brain cause this age-related slowing of cognitive processing, but disagree on the precise explanation
Neural network view – as neurons in the brain die, breaks in neural networks occur
The brain adapts by forming bypasses – new synaptic connections that go around the breaks but are less efficient
Information-loss view – suggests that older adults experience greater loss of information as it moves through the cognitive system
As a result, the whole system must slow down to inspect and interpret the information
Ex. Imagine making a photocopy, then using it to make another copy, each subsequent copy is less clear
Similarly, with each step of thinking, information degrades, the older the adult, the more exaggerated this effect

16. Speed of Processing
Processing speed predicts adults’ performance on many tests of complex abilities
The slower their reaction time, the lower their scores on memory, reasoning, and problem-solving tasks
Relationships are greater for fluid than crystallized-ability items
This suggests that processing speed contributes broadly to declines in cognitive functioning
The correlation between processing speed and other cognitive performances strengthens with age, but the correlation is only moderate
Processing speed is not the only major predictor of age-related cognitive changes
Declines in vision and hearing and attentional resources, inhibition, working-memory, capacity, and use of memory strategies also predict diverse age-related cognitive performances
Processing speed is a weak predictor of the skill with which older adults perform complex, familiar tasks in everyday life
Which they continue to do with considerable proficiency

17. Attention Studies of attention focus on:
How much information adults can take into their mental systems at once
The extent to which they can attend selectively, ignoring irrelevant information
The ease with which they can adapt their attention, switching from one task to another as the situation demands
Research reveals that sustaining 2 complex tasks at once becomes more challenging with age
This may be due to the slowdown in information processing speed, which limits the amount of information a person can attend to at once
As adults get older, inhibition – resistance to interference from irrelevant information – is also harder
Which can cause older adults to appear distractible in everyday life
People who are highly experienced in attending to critical information and performing several tasks at once, such as air traffic controllers and pilots, show smaller age-related attentional declines
Practice can improve older adults’ ability to divide attention between 2 tasks, selectively focus on relevant information, and switch back and forth between mental operations

18. Memory
From the 20s into the 60s, the amount of information people can retain in working memory diminishes
Largely because of a decline in use of memory strategies
Older individuals rehearse less than younger individuals – thought to be due to slower rate of thinking
Older people cannot repeat new information to themselves as quickly as younger people
Reduced working memory capacity is another likely influence
Leading to difficulties in retaining to-be-remembered items and processing them at the same time
Memory strategies of organization and elaboration, which require people to link incoming information with already stored information, are also applied less often and less effectively with age
Older adults find it harder to retrieve information from long-term memory that would help them recall

19. Memory
Tasks can be designed to help older people compensate for age-related declines in working memory
Ex. By slowing the pace at which information is presented or cueing the link between new and previously stored information
To understand memory development and other aspects of cognition in adulthood, we must view them in context
Assessment in highly structured conditions may substantially underestimate what older adults remember when they can pace their own learning
General factual knowledge (such as historical events), procedural knowledge ( such as how to drive a car or solve a math problem), and knowledge related to one’s occupation either remain unchanged or increase into midlife
Aging has little impact on metacognitive knowledge, which middle-aged people use to maximize performance
Ex. Reviewing major points before an important presentation, organizing notes and files so information can be found quickly, and parking the car in the same area of the parking lot each day

20. Practical Problem Solving and Expertise
In middle adulthood, gains in expertise occur
Expertise – an extensive, highly organized, and integrated knowledge base that can be used to support a high level of performance
Gains in expertise support middle-aged adults’ continued cognitive growth in practical problem solving – analyzing how to achieve goals in real-world situations involving a high degree of uncertainty
Expertise is seen in individuals in all types of work, not just in those who are highly educated or work in high-level jobs
Expertise can develop in any area in any field
Age related advantages are also evident in solutions to everyday problems
From middle age on, adults place greater emphasis on thinking through a practical problem – trying to understand it better, interpreting it from different perspectives, and solving it through logical analysis
Middle-aged and older adults select problem-solving strategies that are at least as good as and sometimes better than those of young adults

21. Creativity
Creative accomplishment tends to peak in the late 30s and early 40s and then decline, but with considerable variation across individuals and disciplines
The quality of creativity may change with advancing age in at least 3 ways
Youthful creativity is often spontaneous and intensely emotional
While creative works produced after age 40 often appear more deliberately thoughtful
With age, many creators shift from generating unusual products to combining extensive knowledge and experience into unique ways of thinking
Creativity in middle adulthood frequently reflects a transition from a largely egocentric concern with self-expression to more altruistic goals aimed at helping society as a whole

22. Information Processing in Context
Cognitive gains in middle adulthood are especially likely in areas involving experience-based buildup and transformation of knowledge and skills
When given challenging real-world problems related to their area of expertise, middle-aged adults are likely to out perform younger adults in both efficiency and excellence of thinking
By middle adulthood, thinking is characterized by an increase in specialization as people branch out in various directions in their life paths
To reach their cognitive potential, adults must have opportunities for continued growth
In occupation, leisure activities, and other aspects of their personal lives