Effects of Aging on Cognitive Development 

Create a news release for your community to discuss the effects of aging on cognitive development.

• Evaluate the effects of aging on cognitive development.
• Provide two examples of scholarly research that support the points in your news release.

 

Effects of Aging on Cognitive Development

Aging is a normal life process that every human being must undergo during his or her life. As individuals age, psychological and physical changes also occur. Many of these changes influence a person's growth and cognitive function. Therefore, every person is distinct in age, which implies that changes in the brain structure and how it operates in cognitive domains are neither the same throughout the brain as a whole nor are they the same for every person. In other words, certain modifications may not be the same as someone else because of aging. When it comes to information received and given forth, the brain is like a human-computer. This article evaluates and gives instances supporting the impact of aging on cognitive development.

Cognitive Development

"knowledge" and "cognitive function" define all mental processes linked to thought, learning, memory, and communication. With age, regular cognitive changes become apparent. In addition, illnesses may impair cognition, namely dementia, more prevalent with the growing age from about 65 years. Researchers have demonstrated considerable interest in preventing cognitive decline and dementia. It is recognized that mental activity is linked with a reduced risk of dementia throughout life. Therefore, promoting mental activity in the middle of life (which we define in this study as being 40-65 years old) is recommended to be an effective method of keeping a decent cognitive function at age (Gates, 2019).

The study of neurological and psychological development in childhood is called cognitive development. In particular, cognitive development as an indication of brain development is evaluated depending upon conceptualization, perception, information processing, and language. It is well known that cognitive development develops with age, human awareness and knowledge of the world increasing from childhood through childhood and eventually to adolescence.

Jean Piaget originally defined the process of cognitive development in his Theory of Cognitive Development (Cognitive Development, 2014). The Cognitive Development Theory of Piaget includes four phases: sensory-motor, the first two years of life. The pre-operational stage, two to seven years of age, the specific stage of operations, seven to 11 years of age, and the formal stage of operations from 11.

Cognitive Studies

As technology advances, the average population age, and the interest in understanding the cognitive and neurological changes accompany aging grow (Kensinger & Corkin, 2009). In contrast, it is known that significant cognitive loss with age cannot be prevented. This led academics to study what separates older high-performance individuals from older low-performing people (Kensinger & Corkin, 2009). They may also investigate the distinction between effective aging and age-related illnesses (Kensinger & Corkin, 2009).

Not all cognitive fields and processes of individuals are impacted as they age. The most frequent and visible cognitive impairments in elderly individuals are concentration difficulties and memory problems (Kensinger & Corkin, 2009). Mental changes with aging may be associated with sensory changes, such as vision and hearing (Kensinger & Corkin, 2009).

Many individuals have a decreased capacity to distinguish colors and a substantial hearing loss in their 80th year of life. For instance, if particular phrases are requested in a bruising setting, younger people do better than older ones (Kensinger & Corkin, 2009). These shortcomings may also be caused by decreased acoustic performance and explain why older people have worse memory. Some older adults may also correlate sensory and cognitive changes (Kensinger & Corkin, 2009).

Cognitive Studies

The research by Kaup, Mirzakhanian, Jeste & Eyler (2011) found that the cognitive performance of elderly persons decreases with time as a group, but significant diversity exists among individuals. Where some people exhibited severe performance decreases, others showed just a progressive decrease, some stayed constant in cognitive function, and the remainder showed gains" (p. 12). This indicates that we may look at the aging brain in a wide range. All elements should be taken into account while studying the aging brain. Kaup et al. (2011) stated that 'individual variations in cognitive performance in older people may be explained, at least partially, by neurobiological variables such as brain structures' size and integrity.'

This research, performed by Vandenbossche, Coomansi & Deroost (2014), addresses 'impact in serial response time learning for young (18–25) and elderly (55–75) adult people (Vandenbossche, Coomansi, & Deroost, 2014) on the effect of demand of attention.' This research examines the response time to a particular stimulus. The timing of response between younger and older people varies depending on age. This research examines both groups' memory and learning skills. The elderly population exhibits less ability in both fields. Both findings indicate that the cognitive process is diminishing with aging.

Conclusion

The functions of each person's physical body and mind lose their capacity to operate, as they once did due to age. In every facet of a person, the consequences of aging are evident. Aging decreases down a person's capacity to utilize the cognitive process efficiently. Aging is part of life, and mental growth is affected; however, healthy people cannot dread aging due to decreases in cognitive function.