Models of Cognitive Aging

by Perfect, Timothy J.; Maylor, Elizabeth A.

• ISBN13: 9780198524373
• ISBN10: 0198524374
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-04-06
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

We live in an ageing society, where people are living longer, and where decreases in the birth rate mean that the proportion of the population above retirement age is steadily increasing. An ageing population has considerable implications for health services and care provision. Consequentlythere is a growing interest among researchers, medical practitioners, and policy makers in older adults, their capabilities, and the changes in their cognitive functioning. This book offers an up-to-the-minute account of the latest methodological and theoretical issues in cognitive ageing. Part ofthe Debates in Psychology series, it sets out the arguments surrounding the currently controversial questions in cognitive ageing. What is the appropriate methodology for understanding cognitive change? How many factors are necessary to understand the patterns of age-related change? What might thesefactors be? The topics and arguments are explored in a series of chapters by the leading researchers in the field. Each contributor offers their view of how cognitive ageing can be best understood, and together they cover a broad range of cognitive functions including language use, cognitiveslowing, and memory loss. Each of the chapters stands alone as the latest review of work in the area. Taken together, the chapters form a coherent theoretical debate through which the reader will learn about the dynamic nature of cognitive ageing research, and about the direction this research willbe taking in the future. Models of Cognitive Aging will be an invaluable resource for anyone with an interest in the elderly, and in their cognitive abilities.

Table of Contents

List of Contributors	ix
Rejecting the dull hypothesis: the relation between method and theory in cognitive aging research	1	(18)
Timothy J. Perfect
Elizabeth A. Maylor
Steps toward the explanation of adult age differences in cognition	19	(31)
Timothy A. Salthouse
The parallels in beauty's brow: time-accuracy functions and their implications for cognitive aging theories	50	(37)
Paul Verhaeghen
Cognitive slowing among older adults: what kind and how much?	87	(38)
Donald L. Fisher
Susan A. Duffy
Konstantinos V. Katsikopoulos
New directions for research into aging and intelligence: the development of expertise	125	(35)
John L. Horn
Hiromi Masunaga
Measurement indices, functional characteristics, and psychometric constructs in cognitive aging	160	(28)
Patrick M. A. Rabbitt
Determinants of age-related memory loss	188	(16)
Alan J. Parkin
Rosalind I. Java
Theoretical approaches to language and aging	204	(34)
Deborah M. Burke
Donald G. MacKay
Lori E. James
Dual-process theories of memory in old age	238	(63)
Leah L. Light
Matthew W. Prull
Donna J. La Voie
Michael R. Healy
Index	301