Psychology and Aging

Chapter 1. Why do we Age ? A review of some explanations from evolutionary biology, from cellular biology. Lessons to be learned from the different time courses of ageing in humans, apes, elephants, mice, reptiles, fishes and bacteria. Ageing as the lifetime accumulation of biological traumata. Distinguishing processes of "normal" ageing from the accumulation of pathologies. Useful analogies from the theory of degradation of complex information handling systems. Chapter 2 How do we age ? The nature and time course of changes in different bodily organs and systems. Calendar ageing and biological ageing. A short but detailed review of the changes that age brings about in the brain and the central nervous system. How changes in the sense organs have direct effects on our ability to interpret and respond to events and to cope with everyday problems. The relationship of changes in the efficiency of sensory systems, muscle systems and systems maintaining balance and dexterity to changes in the brain. Sensory and muscular changes as markers for the progress of the effects of age on intelligence and memory. Changes in sensory and muscle function as indices of the biological age of the brain and cognitive system. Inter-relationships between muscular, sensory and cognitive changes in their effects on performance of everyday tasks. Chapter 3 Ageing in populations. The four main problems in cognitive gerontology: When are the mental and physical effects of age first detectable, how rapidly do they progress and do all systems and mental skills age at the same rates or do some decline earlier and faster than others ? Why do some fortunate individuals live longer and change more slowly than others, and how, by discovering factors that delay ageing and prolong competence, can we share in their good luck ? A review of evidence that women live longer than men, and so experience slower mental changes. A (critical) discussion of evidence that the rates of cognitive ageing may be inversely related to differences in levels of youthful ability. The effects of general health in determining variance in populations and levels of competence in individuals. Measuring age as distance from death rather than from birth. The implications of findings that, as populations age, so the degree of variation between individuals increases and differences between the most and least able survivors increases. Variability within and between individuals. Do individuals vary moire from moment to moment and day to day as they grow old, and to what extent are these changes due to, and independent of fluctuations in their states of health. The causes and effects of variability. Chapter 4. Coming to terms with change. What do individuals first notice, and complain of as they grow old. How accurately do people monitor themselves. Why do older people fail to notice some changes, while being over-sensitive to others. The effects of depression and anxiety on our judgements of our own competence, and their actual, direct, effects on our competence. How people perceive and manage the changes that they experience as they grow old. Chapter 5 Does it all go together when it goes ? A discussion of evidence that mental skills "age" at different rates. Relationships of changes in particular skills to localised changes in particular brain areas. Evidence for global changes that affect all mental abilities to the same extent. . Evidence that local changes in the brain affect some cognitive abilities earlier and more severely than others. Some logical and practical difficulties of distinguishing between "global" and "local changes". Parallels between " local" and "global" changes in old age and the effects of brain damage in young and middle-aged adults. Lessons from the study of old age for theories of mental development in childhood. Can all, or most, age related changes in mental competence, in childhood and in old age, be sensitively detected by changes in performance on simple intelligence tests ? Do individual differences in intelligence in youth, and changes in intelligence in old age both depend on similar differences in levels of "global" neurophysiological efficiency ? Recent evidence that widespread neurophysiological changes in old age, detectable as increased incidence of white-matter lesions and in efficiency of blood circulation in the brain, affect general levels of ability as measured by intelligence tests. The implications of "global" and "local" differences in performance for the study of the ways in which both young adults and the elderly cope with their worlds. Chapter 6 Use it or lose it? The extent to which we can master new mental skills in old age. Retention into old age of skills brought to a high level of mastery in youth. Evidence from differences in career trajectories of individuals whose professional ability depends on rapid mastery of new information and on finding solutions to novel problems and others whose life-skills require incremental accumulation of information and techniques. The effects ofa lifetimes' practice in overcoming the disadvantages of old age. Why should highly practised skills be so resistant to ageing ? Does practice of one skill also benefit other skills ? Can we, for example, improve our general mental ability by assiduously practising crossword puzzles ? How "modular" are skills, and what constitutes the functional definition of a "skill" ? Suggestions for how the study of retention of skills in old age provides new ways to understand acquisition of mental skills throughout the lifespan. Chapter 7 Recollections of times past. How accurately do we remember our early lives as we grow old ? Reassuring differences between older peoples' subjective impressions and anxieties about their memory competence and objective information on changes in memory efficiency in later life. The duration of earliest memories and individual differences in the ages of earliest memories. The Rosy Glow: Differences in memories for pleasant and unpleasant experiences. The nature, and causes of forgetting. Does speed of forgetting accelerate in old age ? Memory for events, for words and for skills Does old age affect memory for some kinds of material more than others, or does it have approximately equal effects on all kinds of memory. The relation of the efficiency of Memory and the time taken to learn. Can the old remember as efficiently as the young, but simply need more time to do so? Recent evidence for individual differences in patterns of cognitive ageing, such that some individuals have early and severe problems with memory, but retain their intelligence and ability to make rapid and accurate decisions ? Chapter 8 Getting things into one's head Paying attention. Differences in the effects of ageing on the ability to anticipate events, to select between necessary and irrelevant information and to remain alert for some kinds of events and not others. "Working memory" - retaining and updating different items of information in memory in order to understand the world and solve problems. The limits to working memory and problem solving set by the sped with which we can process information. Other sources of limitations to the efficiency of the cognitive system than "mental speed". Models for problem solving. Why older people find some knds of problems more difficult to solve than others. Chapter 9 Coping with complexity Case studies of the ways in which older people adapt to cope with the demands of complex skills such as driving or skilled manual work. How complex skills simultaneously on the integrity of all sensory, bodily and cognitive systems. Lessons from integration of sensory, motor and cognitive systems for mainstream cognitive psychology Chapter 10 The future of Old Age Changing demographics of old age with advances in geriatric medicine. Things that we do n ot yet know that we shall soon discover. How better understanding of old age leads to changes in attitudes towards ageing in ourselves and in each other. Understanding of old age and changes in perception of what it means to be a human being. Understanding, forgiving, and transcending our limitations.