Question

In 3-4 paragraphs, identify a significant cognitive change in late adulthood, and describe how that might impact one's daily functioning. What type of activity might one undertake to improve cognitive functioning in old age?

Answer 1

• Cognitive abilities such as memory may see a decline in late adulthood. In general, an older person’s procedural memory stays the same, while working memory declines. Procedural memory is memory for the performance of particular types of action; it guides the processes we perform and most frequently resides below the level of conscious awareness. In contrast, working memory is the system that actively holds multiple pieces of transitory information in the mind where they can be manipulated. The reduced capacity of the working memory becomes evident when tasks are especially complex.
  
• This can cause problems with short-term memory retention and with the ability to learn new information. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of neurocognitive disorder, accounting for 50% to 70% of cases. Neurocognitive disorders most commonly affect memory, visual-spatial ability, language, attention, and executive function (e.g., judgment and problem-solving).
• Many measures can be used to improve cognitive functioning in old age like education and support for the caregiver and daily exercise programs or cognitive or behavioral therapies for the person with the disorder.
• They need to make special effort to pay attention, concentrate. Research shows that aging reduces a person's ability to focus and pay attention.
• They should eat a healthy and balanced diet and also some sort of physical excercise can also help in keeping the memory and cogniitve functioning active. Reducing memory loss could therefore involve many activities like reading, learning a language, learning a musical instrument, doing puzzles and crosswords, and any other activities that involve thinking.