With an ever increasing population of aging people in the western world, it is more crucial than ever that we try to understand how and why cognitive competence breaks down with advancing age; why do some people follow normal patterns of cognitive change, while others follow a path of progressive decline, with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. What can be done to prevent cognitive decline - or to avoid neurodegenerative diseases? The answers, if they come, will not emerge from research within one discipline, but from work being done across a range of scientific and medical specialities. This volume brings together leading experts from a range of fields studying cognitive aging, including neuroscience, pharmacology, health, genetics, sensory biology, and epidemiology. Unlike other books in this area, this book is more about 'new frontiers' than past research and accomplishments. Recently cognitive aging research has taken several new directions, linking with, and benefiting from, rapid technological and theoretical advances in these neighbouring disciplines. This book provides unique interdisciplinary coverage of the topic. With each chapter including commentaries from specialists in related fields, the book provides an integrative study of the topic. For those within the fields of psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and geriatrics, this volume will make an important contribution in furthering our understanding of a problem that affects us all.

A typically pessimistic view of aging is that it leads to a steady decline in physical and mental abilities. In this volume leading gerontologists and geriatric researchers explore the immense potential of older adults to overcome the challenges of old age and pursue active lives with renewed vitality. The contributors believe that resilience capacities diminishing with old age is a misconception and argue that individuals may successfully capitalize on their existing resources, skills and cognitive processes in order to achieve new learning, continuing growth, and enhanced life-satisfaction. By identifying useful psychological resources such as social connectedness, personal engagement and commitment, openness to new experiences, social support and sustained cognitive activity, the authors present a balanced picture of resilient aging. Older adults, while coping with adversity and losses, can be helped to maintain a complementary focus on psychological strengths, positive emotions, and regenerative capacities to achieve continued growth and healthy longevity.

Current demographical patterns predict an aging worldwide population. It is projected that by 2050, more than 20% of the US population and 40% of the Japanese population will be older than 65. A dramatic increase in research on memory and aging has emerged to understand the age-related changes in memory since the ability to learn new information and retrieve previously learned information is essential for successful aging, and allows older adults to adapt to changes in their environment, self-concept, and social roles. This volume represents the latest psychological research on different aspects of age-related changes in memory. Written by a group of leading international researchers, its chapters cover a broad array of issues concerning the changes that occur in memory as people grow older, including the mechanisms and processes underlying these age-related memory changes, how these changes interact with social and cultural environments, and potential programs intended to increase memory performance in old age. Similarly, the chapters draw upon diverse methodological approaches, including cross-cultural extreme group experimental designs, longitudinal designs assessing intra-participant change, and computational approaches and neuroimaging assessment. Together, they provide converging evidence for stability and change in memory as people grow older, for the underlying causes of these patterns, as well as for the heterogeneity in older adults’ performance. Memory and Aging is essential reading for researchers in memory, cognitive aging, and gerontology.

"Provides a unique perspective. I am particularly impressed with the sections on innovative design and methods to investigate cognitive aging and the integrative perspectives. None of the existing texts covers this material to the same level." —Donna J. La Voie, Saint Louis University "The emphasis on integrating the literature with theoretical and methodological innovations could have a far-reaching impact on the field." —Deb McGinnis, Oakland University The Handbook of Cognitive Aging: Interdisciplinary Perspectives clarifies the differences in patterns and processes of cognitive aging. Along with a comprehensive review of current research, editors Scott M. Hofer and Duane F. Alwin provide a solid foundation for building a multidisciplinary agenda that will stimulate further rigorous research into these complex factors. Key Features Gathers the widest possible range of perspectives by including cognitive aging experts in various disciplines while maintaining a degree of unity across chapters Examines the limitations of the extant literature, particularly in research design and measurement, and offers new suggestions to guide future research Highlights the broad scope of the field with topics ranging from demography to development to neuroscience, offering the most complete coverage available on cognitive aging

The Handbook of the Psychology of Aging, Seventh Edition, provides a basic reference source on the behavioral processes of aging for researchers, graduate students, and professionals. It also provides perspectives on the behavioral science of aging for researchers and professionals from other disciplines. The book is organized into four parts. Part 1 reviews key methodological and analytical issues in aging research. It examines some of the major historical influences that might provide explanatory mechanisms for a better understanding of cohort and period differences in psychological aging processes. Part 2 includes chapters that discuss the basics and nuances of executive function; the history of the morphometric research on normal brain aging; and the neural changes that occur in the brain with aging. Part 3 deals with the social and health aspects of aging. It covers the beliefs that individuals have about how much they can control various outcomes in their life; the impact of stress on health and aging; and the interrelationships between health disparities, social class, and aging. Part 4 discusses the emotional aspects of aging; family caregiving; and mental disorders and legal capacities in older adults. - Contains all the main areas of psychological gerontological research in one volume - Entire section on neuroscience and aging - Begins with a section on theory and methods - Edited by one of the father of gerontology (Schaie) and contributors represent top scholars in gerontology

This book brings together some of the best known experts in their fields to offer a cross-disciplinary summary of current research on human memory. More than this however, the book pays tribute to the work of Lars-Göran Nilsson and his many contributions to the psychology of human memory. The book is divided into three subsections: General Issues in Human Memory, Memory and Aging, and Memory and the Brain. These sections represent the three cornerstones in Lars-Göran's scientific career and comprise contributions from senior collaborators, colleagues and former students. Areas of discussion include: long-term and working memory: how do they interact? an epidemiological approach to cognitive health in aging the cognitive neuroscience of signed language Covering a broad range of topics, Memory, Aging and the Brain will be of great interest to all those involved in the study and research of human memory.

" ... Provides a quantitative overview of the vast literature on aging and speeded tasks based on a large number of meta-analyses, many of them new to this book. This volume thus brings together, for the first time, almost everything we know about aging and processing speed"--Jacket, page [2].

A COMPREHENSIVE RESOURCE ON GERONTOLOGY AND GERIATRICS Since its inception in 1987, The Encyclopedia of Aging has proven to be the definitive resource for scholars and students across the burgeoning and increasingly interdisciplinary fields of gerontology and geriatrics. Like its three esteemed predecessors, the fourth edition contains concise, readable explorations of hundreds of terms, concepts, and issues related to the lives of older adults, as well as timely coverage of the many new programs and services for the elderly. Updated, under the distinguished stewardship of editor-in-chief Richard Schulz to reflect the infusion of new information across the scientific disciplines, this new edition brings readers up-to-the-moment significant advances in biology, physiology, genetics, medicine, psychology, nursing, social services, sociology, economics, technology, and political science. While retaining the format and standard of excellence that marked the first three editions, the fourth edition encompasses a wealth of new information from the social and health sciences. It contains the most current bibliography of an expanding literature, an exhaustive index, and extensive cross references. This much anticipated update of the field's most authoritative resource will take its place as an indispensable reference for specialists and non-specialists across a broad range of disciplines that now comprise the field of aging. SPRINGER--SERVING THE HEALTHCARE AND HELPING PROFESSIONS FOR MORE THAN 55 YEARS

Cognitive aging is a flourishing area of research. A significant amount of new data, a number of new theoretical notions, and many new research issues have been generated in the past ten years. This new edition reviews new findings and theories, enables the reader to assess where the field is today, and evaluates its points of growth. The chapters are organized to run from reviews of current work on neuroimaging, neuropsychology, genetics and the concept of brain reserve, through the 'mainstream' topics of attention, memory, knowledge and language, to a consideration of individual differences and of cognitive aging in a lifespan context. This edition continues to feature the broad range of its predecessors, while also providing critical assessments of current theories and findings.

This three-volume set provides insightful and understandable summaries of the state-of-the-art studies of aging—the most important social demographic issue facing America today. Aging in America will help us plan for the future and meet the needs of what has already become an 11-fold increase in the number of U.S. residents 65 or older. Organized around three broad themes related to aging—psychological issues, mental and physical health, and social issues—with a volume devoted to each, this unique set rallies respected scholars from across disciplines to discuss a phenomenon that will profoundly affect each of us individually and our society as a whole. The volumes cover a wide range of topics, including neuroscience, memory, end-of-life choices, health, care-giving, medication adherence, the benefits of exercise, personal relationships, elder abuse, and other vital issues. The gains of longevity are explored, as are the agonies of loss as we age. As a society, we need to assure that older adults not only survive but thrive. This set helps point the way.