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
 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
 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 persons biological and
environmental history combines
with current life conditions
 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 22-70 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
 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
 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
 Crystallized intelligence increases steadily through
middle adulthood
Fluid intelligence begins to decline in the 40s
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 16-85 year olds
Verbal (crystallized) IQ peaked between ages 45-54 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
 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
 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 dont 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
 Information-processing researchers interested in adult
development usually use this model to guide
research on different aspects of thinking.
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
 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
 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
 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
 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
 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
 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 ones 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
 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
 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
 Multidimensionality and
Multidirectionality
Cognitive Pragmatics
Speed Processing
Decision Making
Education
Work
Health
Use it or lose it
 Development is multidimensional, which
means that it occurs in many different
dimensions, including biological, cognitive
and socioemotional. In addition, development
is multidirectional, which means that
dimensions shrink and grow at different points
in a person's life.
 May decline, but can also improve with age
The culture-based "software programs" of the
mind.
Including reading and writing skills
Language comprehension
Educational qualifications
Professional skills
 Decline in late adulthood
Due to a decline in functioning of the
brain and central nervous system
Health and exercise may influence the
extent of decline
 Older adults are less able to ignore distracting
information
More active and physically fit older adults are
better able to allocate attention
 Older adults preserve
reasonable well
When decision making is not
constrained by time
pressures.
When the decision is
meaningful for them, and
When the decisions do not
involve high risks
 Higher level of cognitive stimulation at work
and outside work was linked to improved
cognitive functioning
Employment gaps involving unemployment
and sickness were associated with a higher risk
of cognitive impairment
 Decline in intellectual performance likely due
to health factors rather than to age
Lifestyles such as poor eating habits,
inactivity, and stress are related to both
physical and mental decline
 More older adults are returning to college
today
Study: older adults with a higher level of
education had better cognitive functioning
 Changes in cognitive activity patterns might
result in disuse and consequent atrophy of
cognitive skills
Reading books, doing crossword puzzles, and
going to lectures and concerts could help
 Knowledge of words and word meanings
continue unchanged or may improved with
age
Some decline may be in retrieval of words
Declines in language skills likely occur as a
consequence of declines in:
Hearing or memory
A reduced speed of processing information Or
result of disease