Test Bank Answers Sensation Perception and Attention Ch.4

CHAPTER 4

SENSATION, PERCEPTION, AND ATTENTION

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Chapter 4 is divided into four main sections. In the first section, some important concepts related to sensory processes are described. Threshold is defined (the minimum stimulation a sensory organ needs to register the presence of a stimulus) and its inverse relationship to sensitivity is explained (the higher the threshold, the lower the level of sensitivity). Absolute threshold is described, as is the signal detection model of determining threshold. The signal detection model takes into account not only sensitivity but also decisional response criteria, which is important because, compared to younger adults, older adults are often more cautious in their decisions.

The second section of the chapter deals with speed of response, an important area of study among aging researchers. After the initial registration of stimuli by the sense organs, how are these stimuli perceived and interpreted at the central level (in the brain), and how quickly can a response be made? The importance of speed of response and reaction time is delineated, as is the principle that the more complex a reaction time task is, the more likely age-related slowing will be found even in normal aging (age-complexity hypothesis). Stimulus persistence theory (SPT) is one model that attempts to explain why central slowing occurs. However, older adults can often increase their speed with exercise and practice.

The third section of the chapter focuses on age-related changes in specific senses, giving a brief review of smell and taste, and of touch, proprioception, and pain. Age-related decline in proprioception could be one factor in the increased incidents of falls in older adulthood. The fractures that sometimes result from falls can compromise older adults’ mobility and independence. It is not surprising that muscle and balance training are now viewed as important preventive measures. There are more detailed reviews of age-related sensory and perceptual changes related to vision and hearing. With regard to vision, age-related changes in the structure of the eye help to explain why older adults need more light but less glare, why small details become more difficult to see (presbyopia), why some colors become more difficult to distinguish, and why blindness can occur. However, not all age-related visual changes can be traced to changes in the structure of the eye; some are attributable to changes in central processing. For example, there are age-related changes in processing quickly changing visual stimuli, in depth perception, as well as in the useful field of view (UFOV), which can affect older drivers. Perception of both motion and depth also seem to be affected by age.

Hearing loss is among the most common conditions affecting older adults. Some of the typical age-related loss of sensitivity to high-frequency tones (presbycusis) can be traced to damage to the hair cells in the inner ear (sensorineural hearing loss). Age-related problems with speech perception, particularly difficulty in understanding speech in noisy conditions, are most likely associated with changes in central processing. A greater number of studies are now using technology such as fMRI so that brain activation can be measured as people of various ages process speech. Some suggestions for alleviating the effects of hearing loss are use of hearing aids (which tend to be underused by the older adult population), greater use of visual cues, and employing top-down strategies that make use of context to understand speech.

In communicating with older adults, other people often use elderspeak. Some components of elderspeak, such as reduced grammatical complexity and semantic elaboration, are beneficial for older adults. However, exaggerated pitch, too much slowing, and phrases that are too short are not helpful. According to the communication predicament of aging model, patronizing speech (“honey,” “dear”) demeans older adults and constrains them from engaging in communication with those who use it. However, some older adults react more negatively than others do to patronizing speech.

The fourth section of the chapter deals with attention, by which we direct our efforts to processing some portion of the stimulation we receive. Three theoretical models about age and attention are described: The reduced attentional resources/capacity model, the inhibitory deficit model, and the frontal lobe model. Then three types of attention are described. Sustained attention, or vigilance, requires the monitoring of a situation to detect any change that occurs. There can be age-related differences in vigilance when tasks become complex. Divided attention calls for attending to more than one thing at a time. Age-related decline in divided attention is often attributed to age-related limitations in attentional resources/capacity. Selective attention calls for paying attention to some information while ignoring other information. Age-related difficulties in selective attention are often attributed to a decline in the ability to inhibit irrelevant distracting stimuli. Numerous real-world situations require divided attention and selective attention, but an especially important one is driving.

SUGGESTED WEBSITES

Guide to Health Literacy and Older Adults

www.health.gov/communication/literacy/olderadults/

This website is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Within this website is a separate page on visual impairment with tips on how to make written materials maximally visible to the older eye. In a separate page on hearing impairment, there are tips on how to make information maximally audible to the older ear. A separate page on “cognitive challenges” provides further tips on how to make sure information is communicated accurately to older adults.

Age and Information on Vision and Hearing

http://nihseniorhealth.gov

This website, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, has information on many health-related topics. Clicking on “Vision and Hearing” brings you to a site that lists various vision and hearing problems that can occur in older adulthood as well as what can be done to prevent or minimize each one.

Hearing Loss and Older Adults

www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/older.asp

This website is sponsored by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (one of the National Institutes of Health). It describes age-related hearing loss and provides a self-quiz to see if you have it. It offers suggestions for what can be done to minimize hearing loss and provides sources that can be contacted for further information.

Older Adult Drivers

www.cdc.gov/Motorvehiclesafety/Older_Adult_Drivers/index.html

This website gives statistics on the occurrence and consequences of motor vehicle accidents in the United States. It also lists the risk factors and protective factors for driving accidents in the older adult age group.

MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

Select the best answer from the options provided.

1. According to the common cause hypothesis, the link between sensory processes and cognitive functioning _____________.

a. is stronger in young adulthood than it is in older adulthood

b. is stronger in older adulthood than it is in young adulthood

c. is equally strong over the entire adult life span

2. Absolute threshold is the intensity of stimulation in order for a stimulus to be detected ______ of the time when it is present.

a. 25%

b. 50%

c. 75%

d. 100%

3. Individuals with a high level of sensitivity to a particular type of stimulation will have ________ for detecting its presence.

a. a low threshold

b. a high threshold

c. no threshold

4. The signal detection model of determining threshold takes into account _____.

a. only a person’s sensitivity to a stimulus

b. only a person’s decisional criteria

c. both a person’s sensitivity and decisional criteria

d. neither a person’s sensitivity nor decisional criteria

5. In general, older adults’ greater cautiousness when making a decision about the presence of a stimulus means that we are likely to underestimate their actual sensitivity.

a. True

b. False

6. In general, older adults are _______ than young adults are and they tend to have ____ false alarms compared to young adults.

a. less cautious; more

b. less cautious; fewer

c. more cautious; more

d. more cautious; fewer

7. The premotor component of reaction time ___________.

a. is difficult to observe directly

b. accounts for a larger proportion of total reaction time compared to the motor time

c. consists mainly of the time taken for the brain to process information

d. All of the above

8. Older adults perform more slowly than young adults do. As reaction time tasks become more complex (that is, involve more and more choices and decisions), age-related differences in speed of response _________.

a. get smaller

b. get larger

c. stay the same

9. According to stimulus persistence theory, stimulus traces (for example, flashes of light) take ________ to clear through the nervous systems of older adults compared with young adults.

a. less time

b. more time

c. the same amount of time

a.

10. Which of the following is (are) true regarding older adults and reaction time?

a. Regular exercise can moderate age-related slowing.

b. Practice does not help older adults to respond more quickly.

c. Short-term exercise always helps older adults respond more quickly.

d. The gap between young and older adults’ speed can be closed with practice.

11. Compared to young adults, older adults have ________ for smell, taste, and touch sensitivity.

a. a lower threshold

b. a higher threshold

c. the same threshold

12. Most older adults acknowledge that they are at risk of falling and they are more than willing to participate in programs that involve balance training to prevent such falls.

a. True

b. False

13. Glaucoma is a disease of the eye associated with __________.

a. opaque formations in the lens

b. elevated pressure in the aqueous humor

c. smaller than normal pupils

d. dullness of the cornea

14. Compared to the young eye, the older eye lets in ______ under a given level of illumination.

a. less light

b. more light

c. the same amount of light

15. The far-sightedness, or difficulty focusing on close-up objects, that is experienced by many older adults is called ____________.

a. presbycusis

b. macular degeneration

c. glaucoma

d. presbyopia

16. An individual with presbyopia will have the greatest difficulty _____________.

a. being able to see a red traffic light

b. being able to see the time on a large wall clock

c. being able to read the small numbers in the telephone book

d. being able to see things under brightly lit conditions

17. Which is the most important reason for age-related changes in color vision?

a. Changes in the vestibular canal

b. Changes in the lens of the eye

c. Changes in the vitreous humor of the eye

d. Changes in the frontal lobe of the cortex

18. Senile cataracts ___________.

a. are areas of cloudiness or opacity in the lens

b. scatter light, which creates susceptibility to glare

c. are common in older adults

d. All of the above

a.

19. _______ is a disease associated with an irreversible loss of nerve cells in the retina.

a. Glaucoma

b. Macular degeneration

c. Presbyopia

d. Visual regression

20. In designing a living environment for older adults, which of the following would NOT be recommended?

a. Use reds and yellows whenever there is a need for color coding.

b. Use a high but even level of illumination (lighting) in hallways and stairways.

c. Place grab bars on walls inside bathtubs and shower stalls.

d. For floor coverings, use shiny tiles that reflect light.

21. Useful field of view (UFOV) __________.

a. is often more restricted in older adults than in young adults

b. can be improved with lenses for near-sightedness

c. can be improved with surgery on the lens of the eye

d. is a measure of sensory rather than perceptual processes

22. If all of the following were the same intensity (or loudness), for which one would a 70-year-old person’s hearing threshold be the lowest?

a. A squeaky door

b. A cat’s meow

c. Frying bacon

d. A clap of thunder

23. Presbycusis can be attributed to the calcification of the ossicles (hammer, anvil, stirrup) in the middle ear.

a. True

b. False

24. Phonemic regression refers to a phenomenon whereby ______________.

a. the tiny bones in the middle ear fuse together

b. older adults say “I hear it but I cannot understand it”

c. older adults can only hear tones that are in the middle frequency ranges

d. older adults begin to regress back to their childhood years

25. People with presbycusis _________________.

a. have more difficulty with high frequency tones rather than low frequency tones

b. are more likely to be women than men starting in the 50s

c. are more likely to live in nonindustrialized than industrialized societies

d. hear speech best when there is some background noise

26. Which of the following is NOT a good suggestion for communicating with the hearing-impaired older adult?

a. If the older adult does not understand, rephrase the statement with words that have low-frequency speech sounds.

b. Always stand to the side and speak directly into the older adult’s ear.

c. Speak at a normal rate, but not too rapidly.

d. Do not try to speak to the older adult when there is a great deal of background noise.

27. A top-down strategy would be more useful than a bottom-up strategy when an older adult with presbycusis is trying to process spoken information.

a. True

b. False

28. Elderspeak refers to _______________.

a. a special language spoken only by older adults

b. a language consisting only of vowels and no consonants

c. the simplified grammar people often use when communicating with older adults

d. sign language that makes use only of gestures and other visual cues

29. Exaggerated gestures and terms of endearment _______________.

a. are often used when people communicate with older adults

b. can make the older adult who is spoken to appear to be incompetent

c. may be acceptable to certain, but by no means all, older adults

d. all of the above

30. According to one theory, young adults have ________ of attentional resources, or attentional capacity, than older adults do.

a. a smaller quantity

b. the same amount

c. a greater quantity

31. According to one theory, older adults have ________ than young adults do when it comes to ignoring distracting information and focusing their attention to relevant information.

a. less difficulty

b. greater difficulty

c. an equal degree of difficulty

32. Research has shown that the _______ of the brain is more susceptible than other regions to the effects of normal aging.

a. parietal area

b. occipital area

c. hindbrain area

d. frontal area

33. Vigilance requires ________ and under noncomplex situations, it shows __________.

a. sustained attention; little evidence for age-related decline

b. divided attention; little evidence for age-related decline

c. selective attention; little evidence for age-related decline

d. sustained attention; no improvement with practice

34. In one example of a laboratory-type _________ task, individuals are required to respond when they hear a tone and also monitor a screen and respond when a specific geometric form appears.

a. selective attention

b. divided attention

c. sustained attention

d. implicit priming

35. In a study on younger and older drivers, young drivers were more likely than older drivers to __________.

a. operate more controls in a parallel manner

b. operate controls in a serial manner

c. drive more slowly and carefully

d. use controls simultaneously under demanding driving conditions

36. The Stroop Color Word test is a measure of _________.

a. vigilance

b. negative priming

c. selective attention

d. divided attention

SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS

1. Explain what the concepts of sensitivity and threshold are and how these two concepts are related. Briefly describe the age-related changes in each.

2. How can caution in making decisions influence how we evaluate old adults’ sensitivity for hearing sounds?

3. What is meant by the age-complexity effect? Use reaction time to explain.

4. Describe the age-related changes that occur in the lens of the eye and explain how older adults’ vision is affected by these changes.

5. Describe the kinds of auditory (hearing) changes that are usually found when older adults have presbycusis.

6. What can be done to minimize the effects that presbycusis has on communication?

7. Describe the characteristics of elderspeak. Which aspects of elderspeak are likely to be helpful to older adults with a hearing loss and which might not be viewed positively?

8. What is the basic premise of the communication predicament model? Relatedly, what part does patronizing speech play in this model?

9. What is the reduced attentional resources/capacity model and how can this model be used to explain age-related differences in divided attention?

10. What is the inhibitory deficit model and how has this model been used to explain age-related differences in selective attention?