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Chapter 5
The Life Course
Memory and Intelligence
- The process of remembering as a series of steps:
- Perception of information
- Acting on information and transforming it in some way
- Storage of information
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Memory and Intelligence
- Most testing done in laboratory
- Allows researcher to control for variables
- Usually cross-sectional
- When different parts of IP model are studied
- Little age difference in sensory or primary memory
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Memory and Intelligence
- Much age-related memory decline due to decreased processing speed
- Earlier tasks slow later activity
- Information from earlier tasks lost as more recent tasks performed
- More message “travel time” needed due to changes in neural network
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Memory and Intelligence
- The Psychometric Perspective
- Lab comparisons of older and younger people
- Until 1960s, used cross-sectional
- Showed peak intelligence around age 30, then decline
- Later, longitudinal studies found much slower decline
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Memory and Intelligence
- Fluid intelligence
- Begins decline around age 14
- Crystallized intelligence
- Increases through adulthood
- Declines after about age 70
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Memory and Intelligence
- Cross Sectional
- Compare young and old at one point in time
- Confounds age and cohort
- Longitudinal
- Compares results for same study participants over time
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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New Models of Mental Ability in Later Life : Baltes and Others
- The Study of Wisdom in Later Life
- Paul Baltes
- Cognition in later life more complex than age differences in overall decline
- Berlin Wisdom Project
- Found in several wisdom studies
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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New Models: Developmental Intelligence
- Cohen (2005)
- Developmental Intelligence
- An advanced style of cognition characterized by
- Relativistic thinking
- Dualistic thinking
- Systematic thinking
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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New Models: Developmental Intelligence
- Plasticity and Cognitive Reserve
- Stimulating the Brain for Growth in Later Life
- An Effective Training Program
- Physical Exercise and the Brain
- Summary of Findings on Aging and Mental Potential
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Creativity
- Creativity as Measured by Great Works
- Creativity as Personal Expression
- Older people often lack the opportunity to express themselves creatively
- Creativity can take place at any age
- The most creative people learn throughout life
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Personality Development: Stage Models
- Erikson’s Life Course Model
- A fixed set of stages for the life course
- Stages unfold over time
- Each stage has a challenge with a positive and negative pol