The 4 psychological changes in old age

Most people think that old age is a stage characterized by the decline in all the body's functions, including cognitive ones. However, research reveals that psychological changes in memory, intelligence, attention, or creativity associated with aging non-pathological are less than we think.

• Related article: "Prejudices and stereotypes about old age"

Psychological changes that occur in old age

During old age, changes take place in most psychological functions and processes. However, in a general way we can affirm that these changes do not occur in an equivalent way in all people, but that are key influenced by factors such as physical health, genetics or the level of intellectual and social activity.

We will focus on the analysis of development during the third age of four of the most studied psychological aspects in this field: attentional capacities, the different components of memory, intelligence (both fluid and crystallized) and creativity.

1. Attention

While a clear identification of decline in the functioning of attentional processes throughout old age

, these changes are not the same in all types of care. To understand the deterioration of this vital stage, it is necessary to describe what sustained, divided and selective attention consist of.

We speak of sustained attention when a task requires us to maintain a fixed attentional focus on the same stimulus for a relatively long period of time. Older people are less precise when starting tasks, but their degree of success does not decrease more than that of young people as time goes by.

On the other hand, the deterioration of divided attention is much more marked, consisting of alternating the attention focus between different stimulus sources or tasks. The degree of effectiveness is lower the greater the difficulty and the number of tasks through which this type of care is evaluated.

Selective attention allows us to give priority to certain stimulus components, over other less relevant perceptual experiences. The differences between young and old only appear when tasks are difficult and when a significant amount of irrelevant information needs to be ignored.

• You may be interested: "Selective attention: definition and theories"

2. Memory

Sensory memory, the most immediate of the memory stores, generally shows a slight decline as a result of aging. Passive-type short-term memory does not appear to be affected by age except for a small decrease in the speed of information retrieval.

In contrast, various longitudinal studies reveal that operating or working memory does worsen throughout old age, especially after the age of 70. This is associated with difficulties in managing the attentional processes that we have described in the previous section.

Regarding long-term memory, when the material is procedural or declarative, there are no deficits associated with old age. In contrast, episodic or autobiographical memories clearly deteriorate as age advances, although those of the second decade of life are maintained more than those of the rest.

In summary, we can affirm that memory impairment is not directly associated with old age but through the appearance of cognitive deficits of pathological intensity, which does not happen in all people. On the other hand, when memory problems are mild, it is relatively easy to compensate for them with behavioral strategies.

• You may be interested: "Types of memory: how does the human brain store memories?"

3. Intelligence

Although differences in intelligence have been found according to age, they are different depending on whether they are investigated in a way cross-sectional (comparing two different age groups at the same time) or longitudinal (over time at the same time) individuals). Another key aspect is the distinction between fluid and crystallized intelligence.

Crystallized intelligence, which refers to accumulated knowledge and its management, does not stop increasing throughout life, except if one suffers from a memory disorder. On the other hand, fluid intelligence, associated with the efficiency of neuronal transmission and other biological factors, shows severe deterioration since at least 70 years.

In this sense, special mention should be made of the phenomenon of terminal loss, which consists of a very severe deterioration in IQ scores in the last 5-10 months of life due to decline physical. Like the rest of intellectual deficits derived from old age, terminal loss is more associated with fluid intelligence than the crystallized one.

• Related article: "Fluid Intelligence and Crystallized Intelligence: what are they?"

4. Creativity

Creativity is defined as the human capacity to generate new ideas and original solutions through the association between existing mental contents. In psychology the concept of "divergent" or "lateral" thinking is often used to refer to this ability, as opposed to convergent or vertical thinking, based on logic.

Although research on the evolution of creativity as a function of age is scarce, its results suggest that it is maintained and even improves over time in people who exercise it. However, among those who are not especially creative, this capacity is lower in old age than in younger ages.