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18 - Aging and Cognitive Functioning: The Impact of Goals and Motivation

from Part III - Aging in a Socioemotional Context

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2020

By
Thomas M. Hess
Edited by
Ayanna K. Thomas  and
Angela Gutchess
Ayanna K. Thomas
Affiliation:
Tufts University, Massachusetts
Angela Gutchess
Affiliation:
Brandeis University, Massachusetts
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Summary

Traditional perspectives on the study of aging and cognition have focused on what has been characterized as “cold cognition.” However, recent theoretical and empirical advances have emphasized the need to examine age differences in the factors that energize and direct cognitive activity (i.e., “hot cognition”). In the present chapter, the roles of goals and motivation are considered in terms of both explaining age differences in performance and characterizing adaptive functioning in later life. As an illustration of goal influences, three different perspectives associated with normative changes in goals across adulthood – social cognitive goals, socioemotional goals, and goal priorities – are discussed, along with their impact on cognition. The impact of aging on motivational processes associated with energizing, directing, and sustaining actions directed toward achieving goals is then considered, using selective engagement as an organizational framework.

Keywords

costs and benefitseffortfuture-time perspectivegoalsmotivationpositivityselectionoptimizationand compensation (SOC) modelselective engagement theorysocial-cognitive goalssocioemotional selectivity theory
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Cognitive Aging
A Life Course Perspective
 , pp. 332 - 349
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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