PSY 3128 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Inductive Reasoning, Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Physical Exercise
5 Jun 2018
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Chapter 7: Higher Order Cognitive Functions 153-174
Executive Functioning: higher order cognitive skills needed to make decisions, plan, and allocate mental resources to
a task.
Neurological assessment involved gathering information about a client’s brain functioning from a set of standardized
cognitive tests. In tests of older adults, the practitioner may try to target the area of deficit. Not all neurological
assessments follow the same procedure. Several neuropsychological tests are derived from tests of intelligence that
assess things like verbal recall (e.g., remembering lists of words), auditory attention, and verbal abstraction ability.
- Verbal abstraction refers to the ability to see similarities between things.
- Trail Making Test: visual attention and task switching, the individual draws a line between a sequence
of targets.
- Wisconsin Card Sorting Test: sorts cards by number, color, and/or shape. Rules are subject to change
and you have to adapt to these rules.
Intelligence Test: provides an assessment of an individual’s overall cognitive status along a set of standardized
dimensions.
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS): most well-known test of individual adult intelligence.
- Categorized verbal and performance intelligence
- Performance IQ involves not verbal tasks like special relationships and reasoning.
- Newest version has four indexes (1) Verbal Comprehension, (2) Perceptual Reasoning, (3) Working
Memory, (4) Processing Speed
Aging and Executive Functioning
- Multiple measures of executive functioning show a steady decline with age.
- Some older adults did not experience these declines on their own self report measures
- Self-perception reflects the process of identity assimilation and the desire that older adults have to see
themselves as cognitively in control of their lives.
Working Memory and Inhibition Tasks: on verbal fluency, older adults show a greater tendency to perseverate and
continue to produce the same words accidentally if told to make a 30-word
list.
Solutions
- Physical exercise can benefit older adults.
- Videogames can benefit task switching
- Relying on experience
Language involves a wide range of cognitive functions including
comprehension, memory, and decision making.
Researchers investigating elder speak have proposed that its use fits into the
communication predicament model of aging. The predicament is that older
adults are thought of as mentally incapacitated, leading younger people to
speak to them in a simplified manner, which over time can have the effect of
reducing the older adult’s actual ability to use language.
Age related changes – elder speak – further declines due to lack of
stimulation.
Negative Cognitive Changes: young and middle-aged adults outperform older adults beginning at age 70. Older adults
also tend to be less effective in their analytic strategies.
Positive Cognitive Changes: age differences minimized when the problems are interpersonal. Older adults are better
at heuristics (mental shortcuts).
Research on adult’s decision-making speed confirms that older people are able to reach answers more quickly than
younger people who lack either the knowledge or the ability to categorize that knowledge.
- Older adults are faster at solving conflicts
- Does not include psychomotor speed
- When it comes to making practical decisions in a familiar environment, older adults are more advantaged
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Document Summary
Executive functioning: higher order cognitive skills needed to make decisions, plan, and allocate mental resources to a task. Neurological assessment involved gathering information about a client"s brain functioning from a set of standardized cognitive tests. In tests of older adults, the practitioner may try to target the area of deficit. Not all neurological assessments follow the same procedure. Several neuropsychological tests are derived from tests of intelligence that assess things like verbal recall (e. g. , remembering lists of words), auditory attention, and verbal abstraction ability. Verbal abstraction refers to the ability to see similarities between things. Trail making test: visual attention and task switching, the individual draws a line between a sequence of targets. Wisconsin card sorting test: sorts cards by number, color, and/or shape. Rules are subject to change and you have to adapt to these rules. Intelligence test: provides an assessment of an individual"s overall cognitive status along a set of standardized dimensions.
