LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT CORE EXAM TEST QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS GRADED A+
✔✔Young-old - ✔✔Healthy, vigorous, financially secure older adults (generally those
aged 60-75) who are well integrated into the lives of their families and communities.
✔✔Old-old - ✔✔Older adults (generally those older than 75) who suffer from physical,
mental, or social deficits.
✔✔Oldest-old - ✔✔Elderly adults (generally those older than 85) who are dependent on
others for almost everything, requiring supportive services such as nursing home and
hospital stays.
✔✔Wear and tear - ✔✔A view of aging as a process by which the human body wears
out because of the passage of time and exposure to environmental stressors.
✔✔Genetic clock - ✔✔A purported mechanism in the DNA of cells that regulates the
aging process by triggering hormonal changes and controlling cellular reproduction and
repair.
✔✔Cellular aging - ✔✔The ways in which molecules and cells are affected by age.
Many theories aim to how and why aging causes cells to deteriorate.
✔✔Hayflick limit - ✔✔The number of times a human cell is capable of dividing into two
new cells. The limit for most human cells is 50 divisions, and indication that the lifespan
in limited by our genetic program.
✔✔Changes in brain functioning - ✔✔The brain slows down in late adulthood, which
impairs cognition.
Variation is evident in late-life intellectual ability, not only among people but also among
abilities, with vocabulary particularly likely to stay or increase, and speed of thought and
spatial abilities particularly likely to decrease.
Memory for names and places fades more quickly than memory overall.
Impairment in control processes--especially retrieval strategies-may underlie the
cognitive deficits of old age,
✔✔Ecological validity - ✔✔The idea that cognition should be measured in settings that
are as realistic as possible and that the abilities measured should be those needed in
real life.
, ✔✔Control processes - ✔✔The part of the information processing system that regulates
the analysis and flow of information. Memory and retrieval strategies, selective attention
and riles or strategies for problem solving are all useful control processes.
✔✔Primary aging - ✔✔The universal and irreversible physical changes that occur in all
living creatures as they grow older.
✔✔Secondary aging - ✔✔The specific physical illness or conditions that become more
common with aging but are caused by health habits, genes, and other influences that
vary from person to person.
✔✔Compression of morbidity - ✔✔A shortening of the time a person spends ill or infirm,
accomplished by postponing illness.
✔✔Dementia - ✔✔Irreversible loss of intellectual functioning caused by organic brain
damage or disease. Dementia becomes more common with age, but it is abnormal and
pathological even in the very old.
✔✔Delirium - ✔✔A temporary loss of memory, often accompanied by hallucinations,
terror, grandiosity, and irrational behavior.
✔✔Alzheimer disease - ✔✔The most common cause of dementia, characterized by
gradual deterioration of memory and personality and marked by the formation of
plaques and beta-amyloid protein and tangles of tau in the brain.
✔✔Vascular dementia - ✔✔A form of dementia characterized by sporadic, and
progressive, loss of intellectual functioning caused by repeated infarcts, or temporary
obstructions of blood vessels, which prevent sufficient blood from reaching the brain.
(also called multi-infarct dementia)
✔✔Frontal lobe dementia - ✔✔Deterioration of the amygdala and frontal lobes that may
be the cause of 15% of all dementias. (Also called frontotemporal lobar degeneration)
✔✔Parkinson disease - ✔✔A chronic, progressive disease that is characterized by
muscle tremor and rigidity and sometimes dementia; caused by reduced dopamine
production in the brain.
✔✔Lewy body dementia - ✔✔A form of dementia characterized by an increase in Lewy
Body cells in the brain. Symptoms include visual hallucinations, momentary loss of
attention, falling, and fainting.
✔✔Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) - ✔✔A test that is used to measure
cognitive ability, especially in late adulthood.
AND ANSWERS GRADED A+
✔✔Young-old - ✔✔Healthy, vigorous, financially secure older adults (generally those
aged 60-75) who are well integrated into the lives of their families and communities.
✔✔Old-old - ✔✔Older adults (generally those older than 75) who suffer from physical,
mental, or social deficits.
✔✔Oldest-old - ✔✔Elderly adults (generally those older than 85) who are dependent on
others for almost everything, requiring supportive services such as nursing home and
hospital stays.
✔✔Wear and tear - ✔✔A view of aging as a process by which the human body wears
out because of the passage of time and exposure to environmental stressors.
✔✔Genetic clock - ✔✔A purported mechanism in the DNA of cells that regulates the
aging process by triggering hormonal changes and controlling cellular reproduction and
repair.
✔✔Cellular aging - ✔✔The ways in which molecules and cells are affected by age.
Many theories aim to how and why aging causes cells to deteriorate.
✔✔Hayflick limit - ✔✔The number of times a human cell is capable of dividing into two
new cells. The limit for most human cells is 50 divisions, and indication that the lifespan
in limited by our genetic program.
✔✔Changes in brain functioning - ✔✔The brain slows down in late adulthood, which
impairs cognition.
Variation is evident in late-life intellectual ability, not only among people but also among
abilities, with vocabulary particularly likely to stay or increase, and speed of thought and
spatial abilities particularly likely to decrease.
Memory for names and places fades more quickly than memory overall.
Impairment in control processes--especially retrieval strategies-may underlie the
cognitive deficits of old age,
✔✔Ecological validity - ✔✔The idea that cognition should be measured in settings that
are as realistic as possible and that the abilities measured should be those needed in
real life.
, ✔✔Control processes - ✔✔The part of the information processing system that regulates
the analysis and flow of information. Memory and retrieval strategies, selective attention
and riles or strategies for problem solving are all useful control processes.
✔✔Primary aging - ✔✔The universal and irreversible physical changes that occur in all
living creatures as they grow older.
✔✔Secondary aging - ✔✔The specific physical illness or conditions that become more
common with aging but are caused by health habits, genes, and other influences that
vary from person to person.
✔✔Compression of morbidity - ✔✔A shortening of the time a person spends ill or infirm,
accomplished by postponing illness.
✔✔Dementia - ✔✔Irreversible loss of intellectual functioning caused by organic brain
damage or disease. Dementia becomes more common with age, but it is abnormal and
pathological even in the very old.
✔✔Delirium - ✔✔A temporary loss of memory, often accompanied by hallucinations,
terror, grandiosity, and irrational behavior.
✔✔Alzheimer disease - ✔✔The most common cause of dementia, characterized by
gradual deterioration of memory and personality and marked by the formation of
plaques and beta-amyloid protein and tangles of tau in the brain.
✔✔Vascular dementia - ✔✔A form of dementia characterized by sporadic, and
progressive, loss of intellectual functioning caused by repeated infarcts, or temporary
obstructions of blood vessels, which prevent sufficient blood from reaching the brain.
(also called multi-infarct dementia)
✔✔Frontal lobe dementia - ✔✔Deterioration of the amygdala and frontal lobes that may
be the cause of 15% of all dementias. (Also called frontotemporal lobar degeneration)
✔✔Parkinson disease - ✔✔A chronic, progressive disease that is characterized by
muscle tremor and rigidity and sometimes dementia; caused by reduced dopamine
production in the brain.
✔✔Lewy body dementia - ✔✔A form of dementia characterized by an increase in Lewy
Body cells in the brain. Symptoms include visual hallucinations, momentary loss of
attention, falling, and fainting.
✔✔Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) - ✔✔A test that is used to measure
cognitive ability, especially in late adulthood.
