Aging and self-regulated language processing.

Stine‐Morrow, Elizabeth A. L.; Miller, Leonard E.; Hertzog, Christopher

doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.4.582

Cited by 166 publications

(200 citation statements)

References 299 publications

(481 reference statements)

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“…The data reported here suggest that the implementation, through repeated exercise, of attentional engagement can mitigate the characteristic declines in cognitive abilities that typically accompany aging (also see Kramer et al 2004;Stine-Morrow et al 2006). It is worth noting that subregions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) may play a critical role in the mediation of general cognitive performance through their regulation of attentional control and/ or working memory capacity (Sawaguchi and Goldman-Rakic 1991;Durstewitz et al 2000;Thurley et al 2008;Kolata et al 2010; for review, see Matzel and Kolata 2010).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal attentional engagement rescues mice from age-related cognitive declines and cognitive inflexibility

Matzel

Light²,

Wass³

et al. 2011

Learn. Mem.

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Learning, attentional, and perseverative deficits are characteristic of cognitive aging. In this study, genetically diverse CD-1 mice underwent longitudinal training in a task asserted to tax working memory capacity and its dependence on selective attention. Beginning at 3 mo of age, animals were trained for 12 d to perform in a dual radial-arm maze task that required the mice to remember and operate on two sets of overlapping guidance (spatial) cues. As previously reported, this training resulted in an immediate (at 4 mo of age) improvement in the animals' aggregate performance across a battery of five learning tasks. Subsequently, these animals received an additional 3 d of working memory training at 3-wk intervals for 15 mo (totaling 66 training sessions), and at 18 mo of age were assessed on a selective attention task, a second set of learning tasks, and variations of those tasks that required the animals to modify the previously learned response. Both attentional and learning abilities (on passive avoidance, active avoidance, and reinforced alternation tasks) were impaired in aged animals that had not received working memory training. Likewise, these aged animals exhibited consistent deficits when required to modify a previously instantiated learned response (in reinforced alternation, active avoidance, and spatial water maze). In contrast, these attentional, learning, and perseverative deficits were attenuated in aged animals that had undergone lifelong working memory exercise. These results suggest that general impairments of learning, attention, and cognitive flexibility may be mitigated by a cognitive exercise regimen that requires chronic attentional engagement.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Longitudinal attentional engagement rescues mice from age-related cognitive declines and cognitive inflexibility

Matzel

Light²,

Wass³

et al. 2011

Learn. Mem.

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“…That is, although one can speak of relatively general cognitive abilities (such as Horn and Cattell's fluidintelligence construct; Cattell, 1971;Horn, 1989;Horn & Cattell, 1966), cognition in the real world is, in our view, usually influenced by relevant knowledge structures (Bartlett, 1932;Ericsson & Kintsch, 1995;Masunaga & Horn, 2001). For instance, knowledge plays a critical role in activities such as reading comprehension, reasoning about possible actions in social contexts, and learning new information (e.g., Hertzog, Dunlosky, & Robinson, 2008;Stine-Morrow, Miller, & Hertzog, 2006). Almost inevitably, new learning builds on the scaffold of what is already known.…”

Section: Conceptual Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Enrichment Effects on Adult Cognitive Development

Hertzog

Kramer

Wilson

et al. 2008

Psychol Sci Public Interest

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1,156

464

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SUMMARY-In this monograph, we ask whether various kinds of intellectual, physical, and social activities produce cognitive enrichment effects-that is, whether they improve cognitive performance at different points of the adult life span, with a particular emphasis on old age.We begin with a theoretical framework that emphasizes the potential of behavior to influence levels of cognitive functioning. According to this framework, the undeniable presence of age-related decline in cognition does not invalidate the view that behavior can enhance cognitive functioning. Instead, the course of normal aging shapes a zone of possible functioning, which reflects person-specific endowments and age-related constraints. Individuals influence whether they function in the higher or lower ranges of this zone by engaging in or refraining from beneficial intellectual, physical, and social activities. From this point of view, the potential for positive change, or plasticity, is maintained in adult cognition. It is an argument that is supported by newer research in neuroscience showing neural plasticity in various aspects of central nervous system functioning, neurochemistry, and architecture. This view of human potential contrasts with static conceptions of cognition in old age, according to which decline in abilities is fixed and individuals cannot slow its course. Furthermore, any understanding of cognition as it occurs in everyday life must make a distinction between basic cognitive mechanisms and skills (such as working-memory capacity) and the functional use of cognition to achieve goals in specific situations. In practice, knowledge and expertise are critical for effective functioning, and the available evidence suggests that older adults effectively employ specific knowledge and expertise and can gain new knowledge when it is required.We conclude that, on balance, the available evidence favors the hypothesis that maintaining an intellectually engaged and physically active lifestyle promotes successful cognitive aging. First, cognitive-training studies have demonstrated that older adults can improve cognitive functioning when provided with intensive training in strategies that promote thinking and remembering. The early training literature suggested little transfer of function from specifically trained skills to new cognitive tasks; learning was highly specific to the cognitive processes targeted by training. Recently, however, a new generation of studies suggests that providing structured experience in situations demanding executive coordination of skillssuch as complex video games, task-switching paradigms, and divided attention tasks-train strategic control over cognition that does show transfer to different task environments. These studies suggest that there is considerable reserve potential in older adults' cognition that can be enhanced through training.Second, a considerable number of studies indicate that maintaining a lifestyle that is intellectually stimulating predicts better maintenance of cognitive skills and is a...

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“…In other words, knowledge derived from schemas, other domains, or a lifetime of reading experiences may contribute to a greater efficiency with which processing resources are expended during the construction of mental representations of text and may help older adults to maintain levels of situation model processing similar to those of younger adults (Stine-Morrow et al, 2006).…”

Section: Agingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Individual differences in how resources are allocated (e.g., Stine-Morrow, Miller, & Hertzog, 2006) in conjunction with age also seem to play a role in situation model construction. A study on spatial updating of objects in a building by younger and older adults demonstrated that older adults who were better comprehenders differentially allocated more time to process sentences that did not mention target object locations than did poorer older comprehenders (Morrow et al, 1997).…”

Section: Situation Models and Working Memorymentioning

confidence: 99%