PSYC 3365 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Growth Hormone, Intellectual Disability, Dementia
Document Summary
Senility stereotype: older adulthood is a time of significant cognitive decline: everybody becomes senile in old age, dramatic decline in forgetting things and people. Fluid intelligence slowly declines in older adults. Crystallized intelligence (skills) is more stable: processing speed (fluid intelligence, mental flexibility. Several forms of memory begin declining in late adulthood: anomia word finding difficulty. Cognitive slowing: older adults take longer on tasks but are still accurate. Ex: why do older drives drive slower: giving themselves more time to react to certain things. Human growth hormone and sex hormones decline during aging. Hormone replacement may help maintain cognition: hormone replacement therapy can have adverse side effects such as slightly increased cancer and heart attack risks. Controversy: are age-related changes like menopause and other declines a disease that needs to be treated with drugs: no, it is a naturally part of life and should be treated as such, cognitive disabilities.
