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6 - Cognitive processes and ageing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

By
Paul Verhaeghen
Edited by
Ian Stuart-Hamilton
Paul Verhaeghen
Affiliation:
Georgia Institute of Technology
Ian Stuart-Hamilton
Affiliation:
University of Glamorgan
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Summary

OVERVIEW

This chapter presents a critical survey of cognitive changes in later life. It examines speed of processing, changes in cognitive skills, intelligence, assembled cognition and means of coping with cognitive limitations in later life.

Introduction

Let me start this chapter by letting you in on a little secret. There is no such thing as the psychology of normal ageing. Allow me to illustrate this. As I write this paragraph, our 2-month-old baby son is cooing in the background. Our baby obviously has a human mind, but this mind is very different from his parents', not just quantitatively (i.e. a temporarily dimmer version of the mash-up between my wife and me), but qualitatively as well (we have no idea what his cooing signifies beyond a quiet and quite brittle delight; likewise, he doesn't have a clue what we are telling him). There is a psychology of development, and it is very much needed: a child's mind is impenetrable to an adult. There is, however, no need for a separate psychology of ageing: older adults are just like young adults, except perhaps a little slower, a little less fazed by the hassles of life and a lot more mature. Put simply, changes over the adult lifespan tend to be quantitative, not qualitative.

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Chapter
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An Introduction to Gerontology , pp. 159 - 193
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

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