KHA302 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Tunnel Vision, Working Memory, Episodic Memory
30 Jun 2018
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Developmental Psychology: week 12
- Physical functioning
Ageing is an area we are playing increasingly more important to study
-due to an ageing population
-Now considered in developmental psychology
-Not just in nursing
Motor, sensory and intellectual functioning slows:
-don’t necessarily get worse
obefore the age of 80
-Abilities just becoming slowly
-This is a slow and gradual process of decline
SKIN, BONE AND MUSCULAR CHANGES:
-Skin takes longer to heal
-Wrinkles, dry skin, pigmentation becomes paler
-Decreased bone mass
oOsteoporosis
oFor people they need to get this checked
oWomen especially due to estrogen
oA knock on the hip is much worse than at younger ages
oBone breaks are easier
-Lowering of muscular strength and speed
oDon’t tighten as quickly: less brace for falls
oBody doesn’t allow as much defense
-Cardiovascular and respiratory changes:
oHeart: is a muscle
Contract less effectively
Ejects lower volume of blood leading to decreased oxygen
Oxygen not pumped around the body as well
oLung efficiency is less
Less efficient coughing to increased risk of infection
-Older adults frustrated that they use to be able to do these things
oThink that others may think it’s a bigger deal, burden
oSo don’t admit to them
oThese physical problems therefore lead to psychological problems
-Brain:
oWeight and mass decreases over adulthood: this then accelerates after
60
Not that pronounced after 60 unless damage
Neuronal loss, but may be more a shrinkage than los
Blood flow to the brain is decreased:
Less oxygen because of the lungs, heart pumped, and
brain
Leads to neuronal death
Particularly respiratory disorders
-Cognitive functioning:
oRepresentation of the slowing or chaning of sensation and perceptive
system: not necessarily dementia
oGradual decline in sensory and perceptual capacities in adults:
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This becomes more noticeable in your 40’s and are typical by
age 65 and older
Typically we can compensate for the deficits
oLosses take two forms:
Sensory threshold are higher
But sensitivity to lower levels is decreased
oPerceptual abilities decline in some adults
oDifficulty in processing or interpreting sensory information
oVision:
Many things can go wrong:
Pupils: become smaller and don’t respond to light
changes as quickly
oTake longer to adapt to light conditions
oThat’s why they wear sunglasses
Visual acuity reduced when contrast is poor and light
levels are low
Dark adaptation occurs more slowly
The lens become denser and less flexible
Thickening of the lens
Cannot accommodate as well
Need to encourage older adults to make behavioural changes to
deal with potential future events
To account for visual losses
Resisting this is not surprising
The effects of age related lens changes:
The implications are relatively low despite the high
proportion of elders with poor vision
Can correct bad vision: easy to deal with
Women experience greater losses in visual acuity than males
Poor visual acuity effects many other aspects of life:
Driving
Visiting friends
All the things developing at younger ages are becoming
lost
Hence the need to assist elders with this
Encouraging them to get their eyes checked and to
engage in good behaviours to support against
Many of the technological advancement’s in treatments are
counteracted by the ageing population
Macular degeneration: AMD
No cure but can slow it down
Blurry vision or black spots
The centre of the field fades and become blank or dark
Leading cause of blindness
Causes are unknown
Changes in the retina also lead to decreased visual field or loos
of peripheral vision
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Tunnel vision: caused by glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa
Glaucoma caused by increased fluid pressure in the eye;
damage optic nerve, loss of peripheral, lead to blindness
RP: hereditary disorders gradually impairing light
sensitive cells of the retina
oAttention and visual search:
Less able to divide attention between two tasks
More trouble working out what they need to focus on
Harder to filter: older adults have the greatest difficulties in
processing visual information when the situation is novel
When they are not sure what to look for or where to
look
And when it is complex: there are many distractions
oHearing:
Among older adults, hearing impairments are three times as
prevalent as visual impairments
To many degrees: at 65 years around 90%
Once it starts it gets worse
Most occur in the inner ear: where the fine organs to help us
hear
Once damaged cannot go back to normal
Auditory receptors and hearing related structures and
neurons degenerate during adulthood
Compound when in addition to vision issues
Loss of hearing is most common from the outside in
High frequency or high pitched sounds
In speech: the changes in frequency within sentences
Studied in orchestra samples
Adults need louder noises to hear
Don’t raise the sound, because this is usually associated
with higher pitches
Speak with more oomph
Men show detectable hearing losses earlier in life than women
and lose hearing sensitivity at a faster rate than women
Men work more in industrial conditions
oSpeech perception:
Dependent on attention, memory and hearing
Need better conditions to understand speech:
Listening conditions are important, background noise is
problematic
Increased attentional demands: divided attention
Auditory perception is more difficult when the tasks are novel
and complex, and the listening conditions are poor
Familiar conditions allow use of contextual cues
oAgeing of the chemical senses:
General decline in sensitivity to taste
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find more resources at oneclass.com
