Applied Cognitive Psychology - Leiden University (2019)

Lecture 8: Aging & Individual differences

Aging in the Netherlands

Double aging: more old people and increase in life expectancy

Health care cost  NL – 15.4% of GDP

2013: 27%  are 65+, 2040: 51% will be 65+

Healthcare costs are cut, but there’s an increasing number of people needing care

Solution: stay at home, family has to take care of you

-more responsibility for vulnerable group, lack of knowledge and tools

Proper solution:

• Cheap& efficient care: robotics, ehealth, domotics 
• Improve functioning: occupational health, stress, assessment, workplace design
• Preventive interventions: healthy mind, healthy brain, goal setting, sense making
• Senior consumers: media, ebikes, memory support

How does aging impact cognitive performance?

Sensory perception – Cognition – Motoric action

Sensory perception:

Eye sight:

Pupil size gets smaller, clarity goes down, needs 3x the light as a young person

Focus speed and movement speed of lens & muscles goes down, worse near focus

Retina: peripheral view gets worse

Trouble in traffic: night blindness, motion perception ,depth perception

Hearing

Hardening of membranes and eardrums

-3D perception

-High tones (voices/words)

Consequences:

-Social isolation

-Bad orientation

-Problems in traffic

Other senses

Can't smell as well ---> more likely to eat spoiled food

Can't taste as well --->bad appetite

Worse balance -->fall over

Proprioception goes down -->accidents

Less sensitive to touch --> might not notice dangerous heat

Motoric decline

Leg strength decreases

Aerobe muscles decreases (muscles that use oxygen to perform)

Grip sense decreases

(Leiden Academy of Aging – they have aging suits! - experience what it's like to be old)

Neuro-muscular degeneration:

-Dopamine in CNS goes down

-Tremours

-Posture: slow correction

-Motor process speed

-Fine motor control

-Speech control

-Parkinsons – so little dopamine that movement becomes difficult

Cognitive control

Conjunctive attention, divided attention and sustained attention goes down

Switching, inhibition, updating goes down

Routine and fixed rules improve

Prospective memory (planning to perform action later on) goes down

PFC:

-Gray Matter (neuron bodies & dendrites) goes down

-White matter volume also decreases

-Old people use more of their PFC than young people, because they need to use more brain power to do the same task

Compensation:

-In old age people have more positive mood (a way to get more dopamine)

Memory

Episodic, spatial and working memory decreases

Hippocampus volume goes down – seems that higher education decreases less

Hemispheric Asymmetry Reduction in Older Adults (HAROLD): old people use both of their hemispheres to do a task

Intelligence

Crystallized intelligence increases, fluid intelligence decreases

Enrichment

Pathology:

-High activity = lower risk of Alzheimers

-Alzheimers less likely if highly educated

Strategy training for older people: Method of loci – memory palace:

-Training method of loci improves specific memory

-Brain training

Diet:

-Mediterranean diet – olive oil, nuts – foods rich in anti-oxidants and anti-inflammatory substances

Meditation:

-Tai chi – trail making test improved

Physical exercise:

-Aerobic exercise – strong effects on cognition.

-Volume of oxygen transport increases

-Brain-derive neurotrophic factor (new connections)

Social life:

-Cognitive decline decreases, the more close social ties one has

Limitations of these studies: multiple interventions, ecological validity, individual differences

Design

Physical support

- accommodate for weaknesses (strength, fine motor skills, perceptual skills)

Social support

-Prevent loneliness, promote interaction (robots, facebook, skype, community, etc)

Design principles

-Large text, clear sound

-High utility, accessibility, and perception --> good product!