Question

In reference to processing speed, what is the age-complexityeffect? What does it mean to say that aging is associated with proportional slowing? What can be done to minimize age-related slowing?

Answer 1

• The rate of information processing, as revealed in measures of reaction time, slows with advancing age and this slowing is most evident as processing complexity increases. This phenomenon, known as the Age-Complexity effect, has been attributed to general changes in the speed of processing that affect all components of processing indiscriminantly, both within and across tasks in a particular processing domain.
• Age-related declines in processing speed are hypothesized to underlie the widespread changes in cognition experienced by older adults.A hallmark of cognitive aging is slowed processing speed, or a decrease in the rate at which people perform perceptual, motor, and decision making tasks. Because processing speed is one of the strongest predictors of performance across cognitive tasks in older adults it is the foundation of a major hypothesis for age-related cognitive decline.
• Older people often experience decreased blood flow to the brain,which can impair memory and lead to changes in cognitive skills.Some cognitive abilities, such as vocabulary, are resilient to brain aging and may even improve with age. Other abilities, such as conceptual reasoning, memory, and processing speed, decline gradually over time.
• Yet the reasons for this age-related deceleration in information processing are not completely understood and may vary from person to person. Some compelling evidence suggests that such a decline reflects wear and tear of the white matter in the brain, which is made up of all the wires, or axons, that connect one part of the brain to another. Slowed information transfer along axons may impede processing speed.
• In some people, diabetes, smoking, high blood pressure or other so-called vascular risk factors can wear away at the blood vessels feeding the brain's white matter, starving axons of much needed oxygen and glucose.
• Seek out new experiences, an active social life, and mental demands such as learning a new language, playing chess, or getting an advanced college degree. Learning new things always has the benefit of making you feel good about yourself, and this is especially true for seniors who accomplish things most people think they can’t do.
• Make a special effort to pay attention, concentrate. Research shows that aging reduces a person’s ability to focus and pay attention. This also means that seniors have to work harder at filtering distractions, such as when we open the refrigerator door and forget what we are looking for because we thought of something else before we opened the door.
• New learning has to be consolidated to form lasting memory, and this takes a little uninterrupted time and conscious rehearsal right after you learn it. Seniors are especially susceptible to having temporary memories wiped out by distractions.
• Some people may have a genetic predisposition to age-related white matter decay, a poorly understood but actively studied hypothesis. In other individuals, slowed processing speed could be the first sign of a neurodegenerative illness, such as Alzheimer's disease. Head trauma, including concussions, may play a role.
• A person may sustain or even improve information processing speed by paying close attention to vascular risk factors, engaging in regular aerobic exercise, eating well and continuing to challenge oneself intellectually.