Description: Which is more stressful, catastrophic life events or daily stresses (hassles)? One on one, of course catastrophic life events are more stressful but which stressors, all in all, take more of a toll on us physically and psychologically? Classic stress research by Richard Lazarus found that in the long run daily stresses or hassles… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Higher-Order Cognitive Functions in Aging
SuperAgers: Born or Made?
Description: Do you have an aging relative who is still remarkably sharp mentally, who can remember details of many things, is quick to respond to comments with humour and insight and who, from a mental point of view seems much younger than their years? Well, if so, there is a name for that sort of… Read more »
Happiness and Aging: A New Look at the Data
Description: You have heard, I hope, of the supposed power of providing random acts of kindness to others, even strangers, haven’t you? However, have thought much about why that might be a good thin g to do? We may have heard from parents, teachers and others that it is a good thing to be kind… Read more »
Remembering Music and Forgetting Everything Else?
Description: Quick! Which of these is easier to remember: a song you heard last week and really liked or what you had for lunch last Tuesday? Unless the lunch was particularly good or unique or special it is most likely you would remember the song and if you think about it you agree with that… Read more »
Aging and Fake News: A Big Deal?
Description: Who is most susceptible to fake news? Children? Young adults? Middle aged adults? The elderly? Let’s leave children out of the question for now as their fake news exposures and uptakes are, at least to some extent, their parents’ concern. What about the elderly? ON the one hand they have less access to the… Read more »
A Soon Post-COVID (Small, Thin) Silver Lining?
Description: OK, I realize deeply and fully that we are most definitely NOT even close to being ready to consider even the thinnest of possible silver linings to the COVID debacle. So, just put that aside for now (I will hint at it very cautiously at the end of the second section below) and let’s… Read more »
How Might You Test for Wisdom?
Description: Are you wise (not as in wise guy but as in wise like an owl)? What does wisdom involve? What sorts of things, if you observed them in the behavior of, or otherwise applying to, a particular person would lead you towards thinking that they were a wise person? Now think of this as… Read more »
When or How Might Mis-remembering be Good?
Description: Imagine you are chatting with one of your grandparents about a trip you took with them last summer and you are reminiscing about a stop you made at a bakery, and they are saying they still remember the taste of the peanut butter cookie they had while you were there. In thinking about that… Read more »
Associative Memory: Sniff it Out!
Description: I know the answer to this question is yes but consider it anyway. Have you ever run into a smell that immediately took you back into your memory to another time or place? Maybe it was the lovely smells coming out a bakery that remained you of your grandmother’s kitchen or perhaps the smell… Read more »
Reactivating Stem Cells: Possbile Key to Treating Neurodegenerative Disorders
Description: When I first started teaching introductory psychology a few decades ago I used to tell students that they had most of the largest number of brain neurons they would ever have at the time they were born. After their birth the number of brain cells dropped due to things like attrition and pruning (neurons… Read more »
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