Selective review of cognitive aging

Salthouse, Timothy A.

doi:10.1017/s1355617710000706

Cited by 895 publications

(707 citation statements)

References 35 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

608

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Although the relation of age and magnitude of practice effect has not been unequivocally established, age has been reported to affect the magnitude of practice effects negatively (Salthouse 2010). Thus, the discrepancy between our findings and the existing body of literature could be explained if performance in the meditation group-consisting of older adults-was actually a combination of small practice effects plus positive effects of the intervention.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 89%

Meditation, Cognitive Flexibility and Well-Being

Hartkamp

Thornton

2017

J Cogn Enhanc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A number of previous studies have suggested that mindfulness meditation can enhance cognitive performance. Although both western empirical findings and Buddhist psychological theory have emphasised a role for cognitive flexibility in the development and maintenance of mental health, few studies have specifically focused on flexibility in relation to mindfulness. The present study used a range of objective, behavioural measures to assess cognitive flexibility in 41 individuals before and after a 6-day intensive Vipassana (mindfulness) retreat. Subjective assessments of mindfulness, positive functioning and well-being were also taken. A comparably sized control group of students and government employees was given the same pre-and post-test measures. In contrast to our expectations and to previous reports, there were no significant changes in cognitive performance, over and above practice-related improvements also shown by the control group. Retreat participants did, however, register positive improvements on the subjective measures. We discuss possible limitations with our experimental design and highlight important issues that may assist future studies aiming to assess effects of mindfulness in the cognitive domain.

show abstract

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 89%

Meditation, Cognitive Flexibility and Well-Being

Hartkamp

Thornton

2017

J Cogn Enhanc

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As Table 5 shows, the main effect of age was significant, with older participants displaying overall much longer RTs (3241 vs. 2656 ms). This was expected based on prior results (e.g., [16,55,56]). Furthermore, the sentence effect was significant, with longer RTs for negative than positive sentences (3038 vs. 2858 ms).…”

Section: Do the Post-sentence Responses Reveal Negativity And Positivsupporting

confidence: 76%

Priming Younger and Older Adults’ Sentence Comprehension: Insights from Dynamic Emotional Facial Expressions and Pupil Size Measures

Carminati¹,

Knoeferle²

2016

TOPSYJ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background:Prior visual-world research has demonstrated that emotional priming of spoken sentence processing is rapidly modulated by age. Older and younger participants saw two photographs of a positive and of a negative event side-by-side and listened to a spoken sentence about one of these events. Older adults' fixations to the mentioned (positive) event were enhanced when the still photograph of a previously-inspected positive-valence speaker face was (vs. wasn't) emotionally congruent with the event/sentence. By contrast, the younger adults exhibited such an enhancement with negative stimuli only. Objective:The first aim of the current study was to assess the replicability of these findings with dynamic face stimuli (unfolding from neutral to happy or sad). A second goal was to assess a key prediction made by socio-emotional selectivity theory, viz. that the positivity effect (a preference for positive information) displayed by older adults involves cognitive effort. Method:We conducted an eye-tracking visual-world experiment. Results:Most priming and age effects, including the positivity effects, replicated. However, against our expectations, the positive gaze preference in older adults did not co-vary with a standard measure of cognitive effort -increased pupil dilation. Instead, pupil size was significantly bigger when (both younger and older) adults processed negative than positive stimuli. Conclusion:These findings are in line with previous research on the relationship between positive gaze preferences and pupil dilation. We discuss both theoretical and methodological implications of these results.

show abstract

“…The time it takes to process information increases with age, and this can affect an individual's ability to remember instructions or attend to important information (Institute of Medicine, 2015). Similar decrements occur in reasoning, visuospatial skills, and working memory (Salthouse, 2010), which make decision-making, way finding, and remembering instructions more challenging.…”

Section: Social Connection and Cognitive Functionmentioning

confidence: 88%

Cognitive Effects of Social Media Use: A Case of Older Adults

Quinn

2018

Social Media + Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research on the effects of social media use at older ages has largely focused on social benefits. Yet, participation in these new media forms may result in other favorable outcomes, such as improved cognitive functioning. Using a wait list-control design, this study examines the effects of social media engagement among novice adult social media users, aged 65 and older, in four cognitive domains: attention, processing speed, working memory, and inhibitory control. Baseline and multiple post-tests indicate improvement of intervention participants in inhibitory control. These findings demonstrate that the benefits of social media use at older ages extend beyond mere social engagement, and into other domains of everyday well-being.

show abstract

Selective review of cognitive aging

Cited by 895 publications

References 35 publications

Meditation, Cognitive Flexibility and Well-Being

Meditation, Cognitive Flexibility and Well-Being

Priming Younger and Older Adults’ Sentence Comprehension: Insights from Dynamic Emotional Facial Expressions and Pupil Size Measures

Cognitive Effects of Social Media Use: A Case of Older Adults

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About