Deck 6: Basic Cognitive Functions: Information Processing, Attention, and Memory

Question 1

The ______________ hypothesis proposes that older adults are disproportionately slower on tasks that are more difficult.

A) divided attention
B) conjunction search
C) age complexity
D) inhibitory control

Answer 1

C

Question 2

Brinley plots illustrating the slowing of reaction time in older adults typically involve which type of data?

A) Correlations among test scores within both younger and older adults groups.
B) Path analyses predicting the performance of older adults from younger adults.
C) Graphs in which older adult data are on one axis and younger adult data on the other.
D) Pie charts in which the scores of older adults are shown in comparison to young adults.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

On simple search tasks, where targets stand out relatively easily from distractors, older adults perform at high levels, because these tasks require:

A) parallel processing.
B) division of attention.
C) serial processing.
D) attentional vigilance.

Answer 3

A

Question 4

As pointed out in "Aging Today," compared to eating, fixing the radio, or adjusting the GPS while driving, cellphone use is ______ dangerous:

A) equally
B) much less
C) slightly less
D) much more

Question 5

An older adult's ability to drive may be affected by which normal age-related changes in vision?

A) a reduction in color vision
B) greater sensitivity to glare
C) increased ability to see near objects
D) tendency to make right-left reversals

Question 6

The Canadian Auto Association Simple Driving Test for Seniors indicates:

A) A potential medical problem that requires attention .
B) Specific areas for improvement or training .
C) Driving at night should be avoided.
D) That the person should not be driving..

Question 7

Performance of older adults on the __________ task provides evidence of difficulties they experience in inhibiting irrelevant and potentially confusing information.

A) Brinley
B) Salthouse
C) Deese
D) Stroop

Question 8

Crowded inter

A) narrow sidewalks.
B) lower speed limits.
C) confusing signs.
D) many pedestrians.

Question 9

According to your text, older drivers in Canada faced with the challenge of making a left-hand turn while driving in a busy inter

A) Having an accident
B) Dying from a heart attack
C) Forgetting where they are
D) Feeling overconfident

Question 10

Data from studies measuring the brain's electrical activation to stimuli, also known as _______________, show that older adults are less able to inhibit irrelevant information.

A) attention activation units
B) irrelevant information signals
C) complex decision responses
D) event-related potentials

Question 11

The ability to respond to stimuli in the periphery, relevant to the driving skills of older adults, is called:

A) functional vision range.
B) useful field of view.
C) attentional monitoring.
D) visual scanning input.

Question 12

Transport Canada reports that, in 2011, the highest number of traffic fatalities were for drivers aged:

A) 65 years and older .
B) 35 - 54 years .
C) 25 - 34 years .
D) 19 - 24 years .

Question 13

The General Slowing Hypothesis proposes that older adults become slower primarily because of:

A) decreases in motivation.
B) nervous system changes.
C) problems in vision.
D) increases in anxiety.

Question 14

Research on videogame training in young adults shows that these games have the effect of improving:

A) attentional control.
B) color perception.
C) long-term memory.
D) mathematical skills.

Question 15

Tasks that require the individual to watch out for the appearance of a target and respond only when they see it, make demands on ________________ attention and appear to be more difficult for older individuals.

A) multiple
B) divided
C) selective
D) sustained

Question 16

The model of self-regulation and driving predicts that an older adult will continue to drive depends on the psychological factor(s) of:

A) availability of public transportation.
B) ability to get rides with others.
C) the expense of gas and vehicle upkeep.
D) self-confidence and need for independence.

Question 17

A factor in the driving behavior of older adults is that, compared to younger adults, they are more likely to:

A) engage in distracted driving.
B) drive while under the influence.
C) know how to react in an emergency.
D) venture out after dark.

Question 18

Brinley plots are used to understand which type of cognitive performance?

A) Working memory
B) Selective attention
C) Response inhibition
D) Reaction time

Question 19

The view that older adults have difficulty allocating enough of their mental focus to cognitive operations is consistent with the _____________ theory of aging.

A) inhibitory deficit
B) attentional resources
C) multitasking
D) general slowing

Question 20

Older adults do relatively more poorly than younger adults on conjunction vs. simple search tasks, because conjunction tasks rely on ____________ processing.

A) parallel
B) automatic
C) serial
D) pop-out

Question 21

Researchers have established that when older adults are given an _______ memory test, or one in which they don't know they're being tested, they perform as well as young adults.

A) working
B) remote
C) implicit
D) flashbulb

Question 22

During working memory tasks, older adults have difficulty ____________ the brain's default network, meaning that they are less able to focus on incoming information.

A) activating
B) attending to
C) deactivating
D) speeding up

Question 23

The view known as _____________ theory proposes that older adults use different neural circuits depending on task demands to make up for the losses that they suffer elsewhere in the brain.

A) scaffolding
B) default network
C) inhibitory control
D) phonological loop

Question 24

The effects of aging on working memory may be due to changes in which structure of the brain?

A) episodic buffer
B) hypothalamus
C) hippocampus
D) thalamus

Question 25

Both older adults and older monkeys showed that they could remember over a 2-year period how to perform a task involving ____________ memory, in which they slid a small metal nut off a rod.

A) semantic
B) flashbulb
C) source
D) procedural

Question 26

Research on prospective memory shows that older adults have more difficulty when the task involves which type of mental activity?

A) Recalling a person's name.
B) Solving a crossword puzzle.
C) Planning a future event.
D) Deciding to write a reminder note.

Question 27

A psychological factor affecting the driving performance of older adults is:

A) lack of adequate public transportation.
B) changes in speed limits on highways.
C) changes in decision-time speed.
D) concern expressed by family members.

Question 28

Vocabulary, factual information, and historical knowledge fall into the category of ____________ memory, a process not affected by aging.

A) source
B) semantic
C) procedural
D) working

Question 29

Findings on the effects of age on memory for events from the long-ago past, or remote memory, show that:

A) older adults remember the past better than do young adults.
B) although they try to forget them, older adults remember past events.
C) older adults remember visually better than they do verbally.
D) memories from events in the distant past are no better than from the present.

Question 30

According to research on stereotype threat, when older adults are made to feel aware of their age in a memory study, they will:

A) work harder to improve their scores.
B) appreciate being respected.
C) be less likely to ask for help.
D) perform more poorly than otherwise.

Question 31

The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) task demonstrated that older adults are vulnerable to false memories as shown by a test of:

A) words from categories.
B) numbers in a series.
C) pictures of objects.
D) ability to solve a puzzle.

Question 32

According to research on _____________ memory, older adults are able to remember distinctive historical events as well as do younger adults.

A) flashbulb
B) working
C) scaffolding
D) procedural

Question 33

According to research on the reminiscence bump, older adults should remember the most from:

A) their own teen and early adult years.
B) historical events that happened in their youth.
C) past experiences that affected their loved ones.
D) their earliest years of childhood.

Question 34

The major finding of the Candrive II study (Tuokko et al., 2013) was that older adults' beliefs and attitudes about driving was most influenced by:

A) Health status .
B) Age
C) Gender .
D) Living situation .

Question 35

While you are at rest, the brain's ____________ is at work, processing information that you generate internally.

A) phonological loop
B) central executive
C) visuospatial sketch pad
D) default network

Question 36

The role of the central executive in working memory is to:

A) remember information for long periods of time.
B) direct attention to incoming stimuli.
C) allocate cognitive resources to the task.
D) recall information presented verbally.

Question 37

The brain's default network, which processes internally-generated stimuli, includes which structure?

A) Cerebellum
B) Hippocampus
C) Occipital cortex
D) Reticular formation

Question 38

In an n-back task, used to assess working memory, participants are asked to:

A) recall their earliest memories.
B) name earlier items presented in a series.
C) remember a list of category names.
D) describe a distinctive past event.

Question 39

Mixing up who said what in a conversation that happened in the past is an instance of ___________ memory failure, a problem that affects older more than younger adults.

A) implicit
B) source
C) prospective
D) retrieval-induced

Question 40

Older adults who have a low sense of memory ________________, the feeling that they cannot perform well on a memory test, are likely to have poorer scores when their memory is actually tested.

A) assimilation
B) self-efficacy
C) threat
D) predictability

Question 41

Provide examples of three situations in which information processing changes are important in the functioning of older adults.

Question 42

Contrast the three major theoretical approaches to understanding age-related changes in attention.

Question 43

Virtual reality memory training, in which older adults simulated walking through various places, was found to benefit which type of cognitive ability?

A) verbal memory
B) simple attention
C) useful field of view
D) decision-making

Question 44

Do you agree that videogames can improve cognitive functioning?

Question 45

Indicate two situations in which divided and sustained attention might be used in everyday life. What are the implications of the effects of aging on these components of attention?

Question 46

Through the role of the hormone IGF-1, having _______________ may place older adults at risk of cognitive decline.

A) depression
B) metabolic syndrome
C) sleep disturbances
D) high stress levels

Question 47

The type of training MOST effective in the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) study conducted over 2 years with 2800 adults aged 65 - 94 involved which type of cognitive ability?

A) memory
B) speed
C) reasoning
D) analysis

Question 48

Why might training not be as effective as you might expect on the accident rates of older drivers?

Question 49

What are the risks of having aging drivers on the road? On the basis of available evidence, should older adults be restricted in their driving?

Question 50

Training older adults to use "deep processing" to encode information more fully would involve having them follow which procedure?

A) Repeating information over and over by rote until it is learned.
B) Staying away from using strategies that may be confusing.
C) Taking dietary memory enhancements while learning new information.
D) Giving meaning to information such as putting words in sentences.

Question 51

Making older adults conscious about their age during a memory test is likely to trigger the condition known as _____________ in which their performance actually becomes worse.

A) stereotype threat
B) memory controllability
C) identity assimilation
D) memory self-efficacy

Question 52

Research examining the relationship between memory and stress found that people who experience daily stresses, regardless of age, also are likely to:

A) feel better prepared to handle cognitive demands.
B) remember more details in a novel task.
C) have memory problems on the days they were stressed.
D) experience a higher chance of developing long-term memory loss.

Question 53

Unlike younger adults, neither middle-aged nor older individuals show a benefit to memory of having a greater amount of _______ sleep:

A) REM
B) Stage 1
C) slow-wave
D) daytime

Question 54

Older adults who have a low sense of memory controllability because they believe that memory decline is inevitable can also be thought of as high in:

A) identity assimilation.
B) memory self-efficacy.
C) identity accommodation.
D) retrieval-induced forgetting.

Question 55

Summarize the "score card" showing which memory functions decline and which do not in later life.

Question 56

Older adults who eat a diet that includes food rich in ____________ are likely to experience some cognitive benefits.

A) beta carotene
B) ginko biloba
C) homocysteine
D) omega-3

Question 57

Using the "method of loci" to help older adults improve their memory involves which technique?

A) Putting words into a sentence.
B) Using novel associations.
C) Imagining walking through a house.
D) Participating in aerobic exercise.

Question 58

Provide a brief description of how working memory is affected by aging and summarize the neuropsychological data used to understand these effects.

Question 59

If you were developing a memory training program for older adults what approach would you choose? Why?

Question 60

How do findings on identity, self-efficacy, control beliefs, and stereotype threat influence your interpretation of the effects of aging on working memory? Argue for or against the position that age differences in memory are an artifact of methods used to assess memory.

Question 61

Explain how you think that identity assimilation and identity accommodation relate to cognitive processes. What treatment strategies would you devise for people who are having difficulty with their memories in part due to these aspects of identity processes?

Question 62

Which theory of information processing and aging do you believe holds greater promise as a method of intervention for older adults with cognitive problems?

Question 63

Describe how the daily routines of older adults might be affected by changes in five aspects of memory functioning described in the chapter.