The Aging of Executive Functions

The senescence of Executive Functions Karen A. Daniels Jeffrey P. Toth and Larry L. Jacoby Washington University in St. Louis June 9, 2004 To go forth in F. I. M. Craik and E. Bialystok (Eds.), Lifespan Cognition: Mechanisms of Change. [9,906 words (text + references)] Address correspondence to: Larry L. Jacoby circumstances of Psychology Washington University St. Louis, MO 63130 Phone: (314) 935-6795 Fax: (314) 935-7588 electronic mail: lljacoby@artsci.wustl.edu The Aging of Executive Functions For m any(prenominal) young adults, the idea of retirement brings to mentality carefree days of rest and relaxation. Yet declaim to any retiree and the discussion is likely to revolve nigh more(prenominal) complex publishs much(prenominal) as how out(p)do to maintain ones health or financial security. As these two topics attest, old grow puke be a time that requires decisions as blown-up in number and importance as those faced by much younger adults. The ability to effectively make such decisions has been attributed to executive director director functionsa loosely defined set of cognitive skills and processes that appear critical for complex thought and behavior.

In this chapter, we look the issue of how to best define and measure executive functions and their exchange with age. The prevailing approach to measuring executive functions can best be described as occupation-based. That is, one chooses a task or set of tasks that one believes taps executive functions (e.g., Stroop, A-not-B, WCST) and hence determines if proceeding on such ta! sks is sensitive to childhood development, frontlet lobe damage, or aging. This approach has served the field well by delineating the orbit of executive functions and identifying a set of candidate processes that appear extreme in mediating complex thought and behavior (processes such as work memory, inhibition, and set shifting; see Diamond, this volume). In this chapter, however, we lay out that there are serious limitations with task-based approaches and,...If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

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