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Normal aging is associated with a decline in various memory abilities in many cognitive tasks; the phenomenon is known as age-related memory impairment (AMI) or age-associated memory impairment (AAMI). The ability to encode new memories of events or facts and working memory shows decline in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. [8]
Differences in cognitive aging might be tied to the lack of or reduced access to medical care and, as a result, suffer disproportionately from negative health outcomes. As the global population grows, diversifies, and grays, there is an increasing need to understand these inequities.
Further impairments of cognitive function associated with aging include decreased processing speed and inability to focus. A model proposed to account for altered activation posits that decreased neural efficiency driven by amyloid plaques and decreased dopamine functionality lead to compensatory activation. [ 11 ]
Behavioral economics was the first subfield to emerge to account for these anomalies by integrating social and cognitive factors in understanding economic decisions. Neuroeconomics adds another layer by using neuroscience and psychology to understand the root of decision-making.
A neurocognitive deficit is a reduction or impairment of cognitive function in one of these areas, but particularly when physical changes can be seen to have occurred in the brain, such as aging related physiological changes or after neurological illness, mental illness, drug use, or brain injury. [1] [2]
Information processing theory [6] is an approach used to study cognitive development that evolved out of the American experimental tradition in psychology. Developmental psychologists who adopt the information-processing perspective account for mental development in terms of maturational changes in basic components of a child's mind.
Gerontology (/ ˌ dʒ ɛr ən ˈ t ɒ l ə dʒ i / JERR-ən-TOL-ə-jee) is the study of the social, cultural, psychological, cognitive, and biological aspects of aging.The word was coined by Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in 1903, from the Greek γέρων (gérōn), meaning "old man", and -λογία (), meaning "study of".
Traditional definitions of successful aging have emphasized absence of physical and cognitive disabilities. [158] In their 1987 article, Rowe and Kahn characterized successful aging as involving three components: a) freedom from disease and disability, b) high cognitive and physical functioning, and c) social and productive engagement. [159]