Why do some individuals decline intellectually with age much earlier than others? What factors are linked to favorable cognitive development in adulthood?
What will be an ideal response?
Answer: Some adults, because of illness or unfavorable environments, decline intellectually much earlier than others. And others sustain high functioning, even in fluid abilities, at advanced ages. Adults who use their intellectual skills seem to maintain them longer. In longitudinal research, declines were delayed for people with above-average education; complex, self-directed occupations; and stimulating leisure pursuits that included reading, traveling, attending cultural events, and participating in clubs and professional organizations. People with flexible personalities, lasting marriages (especially to a cognitively high-functioning partner), and absence of cardiovascular and other chronic diseases were also likely to maintain mental abilities well into late adulthood. And being economically well-off was linked to favorable cognitive development, undoubtedly because SES is associated with many of the factors just mentioned. Advances in education, technology, environmental stimulation, and health care account for generational improvements in verbal memory, inductive reasoning, and spatial orientation.
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You are conducting a study on how fluency influences the phonemic restoration effect. You study two groups of non-native English speakers, one with a year of English classes and the other with 10 years. All of your stimuli are in English. Who would you expect to show the greatest phonemic restoration effect?
a. The group with one year of English instruction b. The group with 10 years of English instruction c. The two groups would show equal phonemic restoration effects d. Neither group would show an effect because they are non-native English speakers
An experimenter predicts that using a warning signal in a different sensory modality will result in faster reaction time than using a warning signal in the same sensory modality. In a simple reaction time experiment, participants must press a button as quickly as possible when a red light comes on. On half of the trials, a yellow light comes on 500 ms before the red light; on the remaining
trials, a tone comes on 500 ms before the red light. The results show a significant difference in reaction time between the two conditions. Which of the following statements is accurate? a. A warning signal given in the same sensory modality is more effective than one in a different sensory modality. b. A warning signal given in a different sensory modality is more effective than one in the same sensory modality. c. There is no difference in the effectiveness of a warning signal based on its sensory modality. d. We cannot determine which warning signal was more effective based on the information given.
Janis sees a bat flying over the lake and says, "Birdie"! Her mother says, "That flies like a bird, Janis, but that is a bat." Janis begins pointing saying, "Bat! Bat! Bat!" Piaget would say that this is an example of ________
a. assimilation. b. preoperational thought. c. accommodation. d. egocentric thinking.
Four-year-old Honesty covers her eyes to block out scary sights and covers her ears when sounds are too loud. When she is excluded from a game, she changes her goals and decides that she does not want to play anyway. As she uses these strategies, Honesty’s __________ will decline
A) emotional outbursts B) ability to manage her fears C) emotional self-regulation D) grasp of the distinction between fantasy and reality