CHAPTER 6: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF AGING AND THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF AGING
MULTIPLE CHOICE
- Which topic have psychologists in the field of aging spent more time studying than any other?
| a. | stress |
| b. | memory |
| c. | reaction time |
| d. | dysphoria |
ANS: B REF: 126 BLM: REM
- Researchers break the process of remembering into a series of steps. Which of the following is a step in this information processing model?
| a. | sensory memory |
| b. | motor memory |
| c. | intermediate memory |
| d. | working memory |
ANS: A REF: 126 BLM: HO
- Ike is hoping to remember the phone number of a girl he just met at a college party. In the process of remembering, Ike will store information in which type of his memory?
| a. | sensory |
| b. | short-term |
| c. | long-term |
| d. | working |
ANS: C REF: 126 BLM: HO
- Which of the following has been found in much of the research on memory and aging?
| a. | no significant decline in memory with age |
| b. | improvements in some types of memory with age |
| c. | some decline in memory with age |
| d. | that most declines in memory are due to psychological disorders or distress, which become more likely with age |
ANS: C REF: 126 BLM: HO
- Which of the following scenarios is an example of latency?
| a. | As her memory ages, Josephine can’t remember her doctor appointments. |
| b. | As his reflexes get slower, Frank doesn’t drive as often. |
| c. | As her osteoporosis worsens, Pauline doesn’t exercise as often at the local gym. |
| d. | As his cataracts worsen, Paul purchases large-print novels to read. |
ANS: A REF: 127 BLM: HO
- Which type of memory shows a much greater decline with age than others?
| a. | non-episodic |
| b. | short-term |
| c. | sensory |
| d. | episodic |
ANS: D REF: 127 BLM: HO
- Which type of memory shows a greater decline with age than non-episodic memory?
| a. | working |
| b. | functional |
| c. | explicit |
| d. | episodic |
ANS: D REF: 127 BLM: HO
- Which process requires a person to take in new information and put it together with already stored information?
| a. | association |
| b. | processing |
| c. | elaboration |
| d. | encoding |
ANS: D REF: 127 BLM: HO
- According to Hoyer and Verhaeghen (2006), which type of memory stores, manipulates, and processes new information while temporarily storing other information?
| a. | non-episodic memory |
| b. | working memory |
| c. | episodic memory |
| d. | latent memory |
ANS: B REF: 127 BLM: REM
- In research using speeded trials to determine differences in learning, what did older subjects tend to do more often than younger subjects?
| a. | rely more on implicit memory |
| b. | rely more on mediators |
| c. | miss more verbal and pictorial items |
| d. | encode late items at the expense of earlier items |
ANS: C REF: 127 BLM: REM
- According to Small and colleagues (2008), which part of the brain declines in function with age?
| a. | the pons |
| b. | the hippocampus |
| c. | the medula |
| d. | the prefrontal cortex |
ANS: B REF: 128 BLM: REM
- The Berlin Aging Study points to which of the following factors as a source of cognitive decline in older adults?
| a. | physical change |
| b. | lack of education |
| c. | decreased income |
| d. | increased sensory ability |
ANS: A REF: 128 BLM: REM
- Which of the following does Park and Reuter-Lorenz (2009) propose is the source of neural decline in older people?
| a. | chronic disease |
| b. | presence of neurofibrillary plaques and tangles |
| c. | acute disease |
| d. | a lack of education |
ANS: B REF: 129 BLM: REM
- According to Wilson (2011), what types of activities should older people engage in, in order to maintain cognitive health?
- activities that are stress-free and exciting
- activities that are complex and challenging
- activities that are relaxing and fun
- activities that are difficult and thought provoking
ANS: B REF: 130 BLM: REM
- Which approach to memory holds that memory is influenced by many conditions such as the environment of learning, the individual, and the situation of recall?
| a. | associative |
| b. | sociological |
| c. | environmental |
| d. | contextual |
ANS: D REF: 131 BLM: HO
- Charness (1981) studied the contextual approach to memory. When older chess players who were of the same skill level as younger chess players were compared, what was discovered?
| a. | The older players played more slowly. |
| b. | The older players could visualize more moves ahead. |
| c. | The older players had more difficulty recalling positions. |
| d. | The older players did not have the same stamina levels, and therefore could not concentrate for as long. |
ANS: C REF: 131 BLM: REM
- Older chess players have more difficulty recalling positions accurately. Charness (1981) attributes this to which of the following?
| a. | working memory deficits |
| b. | less efficient organization strategies |
| c. | poorer retrieval ability |
| d. | interference from irrelevant information |
ANS: C REF: 131 BLM: REM
- Charness (1981) used a neural network model to measure recall. He found which of the following to be true among chess players?
| a. | Skill level, not age, determines a player’s ability. |
| b. | Older players could visualize more moves ahead than younger players. |
| c. | Younger players took almost 50% longer to move. |
| d. | Speeded games cause younger players to make more mistakes. |
ANS: A REF: 131 BLM: REM
- According to researchers, which of the following can influence performance in mental tasks and can improve with age?
| a. | semantic memory |
| b. | working memory |
| c. | competence |
| d. | episodic memory |
ANS: C REF: 132 BLM: REM
- Hoyer and Verhaeghen (2006) found which of the following to be true regarding semantic memory (the storing of factual information)?
| a. | Older people perform as well as younger people in some studies. |
| b. | When level of education is controlled for, older people perform as well as younger people. |
| c. | Although speed of recall decreases with age, accuracy remains stable or increases. |
| d. | Differences in performance between younger and older people may be related to differences in what the groups perceive as meaningful. |
ANS: A REF: 132 BLM: REM
- According to Hoyer and Verhaeghen (2006), there are several methods to improve memory as one ages. These include memory training, an enriched environment, and which of the following?
- increased sleep
- physical fitness training
- increased consumption of omega-3 fatty acids
- activities such as games and puzzles
ANS: B REF: 134 BLM: REM
- Which of the following statements can be made regarding more recent research into intelligence and aging?
| a. | The research concentrates on halting or reversing the effects of aging on intelligence. |
| b. | The research has validated the perception of decreased intelligence with age. |
| c. | The research questions a simple connection between senescence and intelligence. |
| d. | The research has found problems with using IQ tests to compare intelligence across age cohorts. |
ANS: C REF: 136 BLM: HO
- What are the two main definitions of intelligence used by psychologists?
| a. | quotient and scalar paradigms |
| b. | the interpretive model and the constructive model |
| c. | the global view and the pragmatic view |
| d. | concrete and abstract reasoning |
ANS: C REF: 136 BLM: HO
- What does the pragmatic view of intelligence used by psychologists refer to?
| a. | what intelligence tests measure |
| b. | the integration of memory and skills to solve a problem |
| c. | a person’s ability to negotiate environmental demands |
| d. | reasoning, abstracting, and concept formation |
ANS: A REF: 136 BLM: HO
- What are the two types of intelligence described in Horn and Cattell’s (1966) model of intelligence?
| a. | fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence |
| b. | cerebral intelligence and cerebellar intelligence |
| c. | longitudinal intelligence and cross-sectional intelligence |
| d. | creative intelligence and cognitive intelligence |
ANS: A REF: 136 BLM: REM
- According to Horn and Cattell (1966), which type of intelligence relies on how well the physical nervous system works?
| a. | fluid intelligence |
| b. | crystalline intelligence |
| c. | pragmatic intelligence |
| d. | physiological intelligence |
ANS: A REF: 136 BLM: REM
- Which of the following shows a decline as the biological system ages?
| a. | fluid intelligence |
| b. | creative intelligence |
| c. | functional intelligence |
| d. | cross-sectional intelligence |
ANS: A REF: 137 BLM: HO
- Studies of crystallized intelligence and aging show which of the following?
| a. | variations depending on the educational level of the subjects |
| b. | stability and even increases with age |
| c. | declines, highly correlated with functional decline, from the teen years on |
| d. | no changes from approximately age 24 on |
ANS: B REF: 137 BLM: REM
- How does Dr. Gene Cohen describe the wisdom that can grow or improve with older age?
- as later stage wisdom
- as cumulative intelligence
- as developmental intelligence
- as aged intelligence
ANS: C REF: 138 BLM: REM
- Amy’s doctor says that she does not need to go to a nursing home just yet. However, Amy’s children insist that she become a resident “before it’s too late.” Amy is confused about the differing opinions of her doctor and her children. Which of the following terms describes Amy’s ability to suspend judgment while trying to resolve these contradictory opinions?
- dualistic thinking
- cognitive thinking
- relativistic thinking
- systematic thinking
ANS: A REF: 138 BLM: HO
- What did Lehman find through research into creativity through analysis of the works of creative people and their achievements?
| a. | In most fields, achievement steadily decreases after age 45. |
| b. | Scientists and mathematicians peak much later than musicians or artists. |
| c. | People in almost every field peak at about the same age. |
| d. | Greatness of work is not an effective or accurate measure of creativity. |
ANS: A REF: 138 BLM: REM
- Which of the following represents a significant difference between the studies of creativity by Dennis (1968) and Lehman (1953, 1968)?
| a. | Dennis studied the number of works produced, rather than quality of works. |
| b. | Dennis looked at only scientists and mathematicians, to eliminate subjectivity of judgment. |
| c. | Dennis compared people with different lengths of life. |
| d. | Dennis studied only people who were still alive, so that they could be interviewed to find similarities in personality. |
ANS: A REF: 138 BLM: HO
- Dennis’s (1968) research on creativity shows that differences in peak age of creativity for disciplines may depend as much on which of the following as it does on chronological age?
| a. | family support |
| b. | personality |
| c. | success in social-psychological growth |
| d. | a field’s social structure |
ANS: D REF: 138 BLM: REM
- Simonton (2006) concludes from review of research on creativity that, assuming a normal life span, a creative person’s peak output occurs at what point in life?
| a. | during all stages of one’s career |
| b. | during retirement |
| c. | between 19 and 34 years of age |
| d. | between 45 and 60 years of age |
ANS: A REF: 139 BLM: REM
- Which idea is proposed by the “constant-probability-of-success model” to explain the quality of a creative person’s works?
| a. | Truly great creative work occurs only during the ages of 25–34 years. |
| b. | The most creative people have a constant creative output and great works are produced at regular intervals. |
| c. | The ratio of quality works produced during a career stays the same at every stage of the career. |
| d. | The number of great works produced in a person’s life rises rapidly to a peak and then declines gradually. |
ANS: C REF: 139 BLM: HO