Adult Cognition: An Experimental Psychology of Human Aging

by Timothy A. Salthouse

Overview

For some time now, the study of cognitive development has been far and away the most active discipline within developmental psychology. Although there would be much disagreement as to the exact proportion of papers published in developmental journals that could be considered cognitive, 50% seems like a conservative estimate. Hence, a series of scholarly books to be devoted to work in cognitive development is especially appropriate at this time. The Springer Series in Cognitive Development contains two basic types of books, namely, edited collections of original chapters by several authors, and original volumes written by one author or a small group of authors. The flagship for the Springer Series is a serial publication of the "advances" type, carrying the subtitle Progress in Cognitive Development Research. Volumes in the Progress sequence are strongly thematic, in that each is limited to some well-defined domain of cognitive-developmental research (e. g. , logical and mathematical development, semantic development). All Progress volumes are edited collections. Editors of such books, upon consultation with the Series Editor, may elect to have their works published either as contributions to the Progress sequence or as separate volumes. All books written by one author or a small group of authors will be published as separate volumes within the series. A fairly broad definition of cognitive development is being used in the selection of books for this series.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781461394860
Publisher:	Springer New York
Publication date:	10/02/2013
Series:	Springer Series in Cognitive Development
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1982
Pages:	253
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.02(d)

Table of Contents

1 Age and Its Research Significance.- Professional Achievement.- Industrial Work Performance.- Automobile Driving.- An Important Cautionary Note.- Functional Age.- Summary.- 2 Methodological Issues.- Traditional Research Designs.- Environmental Change Effects.- A Research Design Sensitive to Environmental Change.- Internal and External Validity.- Problems with Selection of Research Participants.- Attempts to Artificially “Equate” Age Groups.- Health.- Concluding with an Optimistic Perspective.- Summary.- 3 Theoretical Considerations.- Difficulties of Theorizing in Adult Development.- Replacing the Age Variable.- Dimensions for Theory Classification.- Two Illustrative Theories.- Forewarning.- Age Defined by Theory.- Summary.- 4 Psychometric Intelligence.- Definition of Intelligence.- Analysis of Component Abilities.- Characterizing the Differential Decline.- Issues of Controversy.- Theoretical Evaluation.- Summary.- 5 Decision Making and Problem Solving.- Creativity.- Flexibility.- Organizational Skills.- Ability to Make Logical Deductions.- Ability to Discriminate Relevant from Irrelevant Information.- Concrete and Abstract Thinking.- Ability to Proceed Systematically towards a Problem Solution.- Miscellaneous Factors.- Cognitive Regression.- The Critical Role of Experience.- Theoretical Evaluation.- Summary.- 6 Comprehension and Use of Information.- Comprehension.- Structural Characteristics of Semantic Memory.- Rates of Information Activation.- Metamemory.- Remote Memory.- Theoretical Evaluation.- Summary.- 7 Acquisition and Retention.- Localizing the Loss.- Theoretical Evaluation.- Summary.- 8 Stimulus Registration and Interpretation.- Spatial Aspects of Perception.- Temporal Aspects of Perception.- Visual Sensitivity.- Theoretical Evaluation.- Summary.- 9Attentional Capacity and Processing Resources.- History of the Capacity Concept.- Usages of the Capacity Concept.- Processing Rate as an Alternative to Capacity.- Theoretical Evaluation.- Summary.- 10 Speculations and Implications.- Five Major Age Trends.- Practical Significance.- Prospects for Functional Age Measurement.- Theoretical Assessment.- Summary.- References.- Author Index.