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Cognitive impairment of old age
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Some people belief that when they are old, their cognition will decrease, especially in decision-making and learning new things. On the contrary, older people have a wise brain and perfect skill because different skill of Cognition which is the process of knowing and understanding (longman dictionary) will peak at different time, some is soon while some take a longer time. Besides as people are ageing they have more experience as well as more knowledge to increase their ability to learn, that why we have a sayings like” the older, the wiser”. Furthermore, our brain is working as the same as our skin or body if only they take care of their brain in the right way they can keep their brains sharp for a certain extra time.On the other hand, people …show more content…
Cognition is a process which is not just about thinking quickly and making risky decision but also includes the vocabulary skill, thinking critically, analyze data, problem solving, emotion recognition. For example: vocabulary skill usually peaks at 60s. Language is interesting but not easy to learn. It’s not a problem to learn a word, we can learn it for one or two seconds. However, when we learn 10, 100, 1000 or more words it truly a big problem. One of varieties skills which improve when we are old is critical thinking which is a very important skill in every aspects. Critical thinking depends on each person, because each of us has different knowledge, background, experience, and the ability to think but this skill can be trained if people focus more on it. Critical thinking usually peaks at 60s or early 70s, the same for analyze and solving problem (Jenna Birch, 2015). When people are old they are considered that their cognition become slowly gradually . Therefore, to make up for their shortage they use their critical thinking, solving problem skill… to from a strategy, carefully make a plan, look at different aspect to make decisions which are mostly right and effective. If there brain decline they are definitely unable to do these complicated
On the night of Saturday, February 1, 2014, I sat down with my grandfather, David Latta, to conduct an interview with him. He currently lives in Clarkston, Michigan, in the newly refurbished basement in my mother's house, along with my step-father, sister, and her son. One could say that my mother's household is quite the crowded nest, with four generation living under one roof. The perspective my grandfather obtains from living in such an atmosphere, is not only something I kept in mind while conducting this interview, but something that guided my questions.
People learn new things every day. My grandmother would say “I just received a new wrinkle in my brain!” Maybe, this is not true, but it is true that we learn new things even as we grow older. There are many techniques to learning a new skill. “Howard Gardner 's theory of Multiple Intelligences utilizes aspects of cognitive and developmental psychology, anthropology, and sociology to explain the human intellect” (Zhou 77). Gardner introduced nine different intelligences. Gardner believed that humans possess each of the nine intelligences, even though some are stronger or weaker than others. He also believed that each person had their own individual intelligence profile. We took a multiple intelligence test to see our own strengths and weaknesses
Prominent musician, Celine Dion, once said, “There’s no such thing is aging, but maturing and knowledge. It’s beautiful, I call that beauty.” To many, growing old is just a natural, beautiful part of life. It is inevitable. It is inescapable. The functionalist perspective of sociology states that the elderly perform a function in order to keep society running with ease. Functionalists focus on the disengagement theory and how people tend to disengage from society as they approach death. Symbolic interactionists focus on how environmental factors and relationships with others affect the aging experience, focusing on the activity theory and the continuity theory (Carl, 2011, p. 220). Conflict theorists focus on the discrepancies that arise between different age groups. They also focus on the economical side of aging and the issues that may arise due to an active elderly population (Carl, 2011, p. 221).
Late Adulthood is the last stage of human lifespan development. Human beings are complex in many ways that it is essential that we human understand these crucial development stages in our life to better communicate and prepared for them. At this stage of development, organs in adults work differently or maybe slowly. For example, I observed that when someone is approaching my grandma from a far distance, it is hard for her to identify or sometimes seems blurry to see who the person is even if it is someone she knows, until the person move very close to her before she is able to identify the person; this is as a result to low vision related to aging.
In order to avoid the physical effects of aging, it is suggested that individuals engage in frequent exercise. Doing so will enhance muscular and cardiac ability, and will reduce one’s risk of various forms of heart disease and obesity (Myers & DeWall, 2016). Due to an increase in oxygen flow, exercise may also stimulate neurogenesis (Myers & Dewall, 2016), a process that promotes growth in hippocampal nerve cells that may result in an improved ability to retain memory. In relation to physical exercise, it is also suggested that adults in middle or late adulthood participate in “brain training” exercises, which have shown to make small improvements in one’s depreciating cognitive development. As a result of the brain’s neural plasticity, such brain exercises have the potential to enhance an individual’s ability to complete control tasks, while other research indicates that it can result in an overall sharpness of the mind (Myers & DeWall, 2016). Despite the onset of an aging mind and body that is characteristic of adulthood, exercise of all forms can induce positive outcomes for older individuals in both their physical and cognitive
The research papers aims to describe a transitory overview of successful aging elderly research, illustrated in there chief sections: cognitive aspects, psychological and social aspects. It is proposed that future studies will unemployment an extensive demonstration of SAE, where the emphases will be more on biological, health and cognitive perspective.
Since ancient times, it has been clear that some people lose mental sharpness (cognitive function) as they age. However, in 1906, the German neurologist Alois Alzheimer began an autopsy of a woman from Frankfurt, that had died after several years of progressive mental deterioration. From the accounts of the doctor, family, and friends of the woman, Alzheimer put together her mental state prior to death, and described the woman as being marked by increased confusion, disorientation, and memory loss.Taking advantage of staining techniques that had recently been established, Alzheimer noticed an odd disorganization of the nerve cells in the womanís cerebral cortex, the part of the brain...
Knapton, S 2014, ‘Brains of elderly slow because they know so much’ Telegraph Media Group, published in the Journal of Topics in Cognitive Science, viewed on the 22nd of march 2014
Younger people have tended to look towards the elderly for wisdom and guidance since the beginning of recorded history and beyond. Students to teachers, children to parents, ordinary people to royalty and politicians – generally those who have lived longer are not only believed, but expected to have garnered more knowledge in their longer lives. Abraham Lincoln once said, “I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday. Also, in 2008 the Australian newspaper published an article detailing a study undertaken by the University of Aarhus in Denmark, which disproved the theory that the mind is at its peak in the late teens to mid-twenties. But all this is not to say that older people should not sometimes listen to and heed advice from younger people.
The cortex in the cerebrum generally diminishes as we age, a sort of decay associated with dementia. Intriguingly, the individuals who have contemplated for around one hour a day for a long time demonstrated an expanded cortical thickness (Davich, 2004). More experienced meditators likewise show diminished age-related decrease in cortical thickness as compared to non-meditators of the same age.
Very Late Adulthood: Ageism. America's older population is growing at an alarming rate. Statistical evidence indicates growth amongst the very late adult age group. For instance, the CB (2011) found that, between 1960 and 1994, the population group 85 and older had risen by 274 percent in contrast to the general elderly population that rose to 100 percent. The upsurge of the elderly population could potentially escalate occurrences of ageism and abuse within the cohort.
When you consider ageism, you think about people being labeled as other 's sees fit. It 's just another term to judge or deny people of their humanity. When you think about people in their late adulthood what comes to mind? Some may think about gray hair, saggy skin, dentures, and a wheelchair. So my question is why? According to (Palmore, 2005, p. 90) “Ageism is a social disease, much like racism and sexism” in that it considers people as part of a category and not as individuals, creating “needless fear, waste, illness, and misery.” The more people grow and develop, they will learn that aging must go on.
Historically, memory has been a recurring topic in cognition research. Through the years, many scientific findings have helped us to understand how memory works. Since, older adults are the subgroup most affected by frequent memory deficiencies, they would be highly benefited with the advance of the cognitive
You’ve grown, sure an eighty-year-old is wiser, but they both have experienced the process of development. Comprehending the process of ageing is hard, somewhat impossible. The way it leaves you wondering where the time went, and how it proceeds. Desiring for the ability to never let go of a moment is common, somehow ageing will never allow that to happen. Maybe you can stay young forever in your psychic state, however you physical state changes. Life passes in moments of time where action happens, however irreversible. Time causes learning, experience, growth, and memories. However, time doesn’t go far without ageing, as with time comes ageing. The more time passes, the more you learn and mature. Ageing just happens, and there is nothing you can do to stop it, somehow it leaves a stain on our personality, and allows a direction to go. A second passes by, somehow you are older, wiser, and more in control. Yesterday, I was not as wise as I am right now. Ageing is a way for us to mature, learn, and develop, leaving us the responsibility of sharing it. Allowing us to flourish, and share our experience and
We are all victims of aging. We can witness our inevitable fates in the elderly with their wrinkled, loose skin and gray hair. You can try and mask the effects of aging, but you can never escape from it. From the moment we are born the natural process of aging begins. Its effects can be seen on our face and body as we grow from a child to an adult. Soon after our bodies have matured into young adults, the degenerative properties of aging begin to negatively impact the body. Aging goes deep beneath the superficial changes like of a balding head, wrinkled skin, or a grey head of hair. These inconspicuous changes occur inside the body affecting cells and organs such as the brain, heart, or lungs. In addition to the deterioration of health of the brain and heart; bones can become weaker and shorter and our vision and hearing impaired or even lost. There are genetic factors and environmental conditions that may contribute to the cause and effects of aging. With age, there is also an increase susceptibility to diseases, cellular damage, genetic mutations, and cancers. Although there have been many advances in medicine and technologies which have allowed us to live longer lives, aging is still an unavoidable natural process.