Cognitive Processes Develop From Childhood Through Old Age Essay

Memory is an important area of study since it underpins our cognitive processes. In fact, the memory of childhood is one of the central mental functions, depending on which all other functions are formed in childhood. From the point of view of mental development: a defining moment in the early development is a child’s memory. Children’s memory is a unique gift of nature. It is notable for its ability to memorize vast amounts of information and involves the storage and recall of some specific data over a long period of time. An adult can easily forget what happened yesterday, but remember many details of his or her childhood, which is especially noticeable in the elderly. That is why it is so important not to miss this time of grace and use it to the full extent in order to properly develop a child’s memory.

In fact, children’s memory is very different from adults’ one. It actually differs in the principle of the process of remembering and is highly constructive (Porter, Bellhouse, McDougall, ten Brinke, & Wilson, 2010). The child remembers the feelings and emotions that were with him in a particular situation, rather than any facts. Initially, the period of time during which any impression is held in memory is very insignificant. A 1-year-old child perceives only what happened a few days ago. By three years old, the duration of preservation of memories grows up to several months. After that, the strength and duration of information storage becomes so large that the number of impressions received at this age is kept for life. Memories of preschoolers have a pronounced visual and imaginative character.

In addition to this, it is possible to add that children’s memory is different from adults’ one in that the child remembers practically every day of his life and various activities that he is interested in. At the same time, children do not set the specific targets to remember anything. The certain objects are stored in the course of a game or by participating in a fun activity. However, it is possible to remember that different attempts to put a specific task in front of a small child to remember something do not lead to the positive results.

There is no doubt that there are some differences based on age within each group (children, the elderly and young adults). In different age period, people’s memory is notable for its specifics, particularly in the principle of the process of remembering.

There is no secret that memory gets worse as you get older, making it difficult to work with the new tasks or memorize some important things. In fact, memory loss and old age seem to go hand in hand. As a result, memory loss usually occurs after fifty years and is “one of the most frequent complaints of the elderly and can seriously affect a person’s quality of life” (Craik et al., 2007, p. 132).

The memories of the elderly and young adults are different in that how they recall information. During the research, “older adults recalled more positive than negative and neutral images, whereas younger adults showed better memory for both positive and negative, relative to neutral images” (Fernandes, Ross, Wiegand, & Schryer, 2008, p. 297). It is suggested that older people are capable of receiving and holding a little less information than younger adults. In general, their volume perception is slightly less, particularly when two events occur simultaneously. The elderly’s reserve capacity is substantially less than in young adults, at least in respect of certain skills. Therefore, it is fair to assume that older people have less room for improvement. Hence, “as individuals age, their brains shrink. They gradually lose nerve cells that they had from birth and process information more slowly. As a consequence, learning new concepts and patterns becomes more difficult. Memory also begins to fail” (“Cognitive Aging,” 2007, p. 1). In addition, people’s ability to store and manipulate information drops. Also, it becomes much harder to switch between different tasks.

In old age, memory is getting worse due to the fact that forty thousand nerve cells that people had from birth is being killed constantly, i.e., the mass of the brain is gradually reduced to seventy percent of the maximum weight. In addition, a human brain can be increased at any age. This is facilitated by a mental activity, which affects blood flow to the brain. It is believed that the best preventive measure against senility, and thus a means to improve memory in the elderly, is the study of foreign languages. It is also necessary to try to avoid stress, which reduces attention and impair memory.

A low-fat diet also contributes to improve memory in the elderly. In fact, such a diet can greatly improve memory. But most of all for a good supply of the brain in the elderly, it is important to help glucose get into the body’s cells since it increases the brain’s ability to retain information. A rise in blood sugar rejuvenates memory, but in the elderly the ability to absorb glucose drops a bit. Nootropics or smart drugs, increasing the blood supply of the brain, help to raise the supply of oxygen to the brain and help to better absorb glucose. Thus, they assist in improving memory, focus, creativity, concentration, and increasing mental capacity.

There is no doubt that our brain needs oxygen.  In order to get it, we should lead an active lifestyle. In such a case, one hour of daily walking is very useful in order to improve performance in this area. Walking also increases the supply of glucose to the brain, and by saturating the blood with oxygen, is able to “cleanse” the head and reduce the risk of insult. Our health depends on active actions, rather than just sitting in front of the TV or the computer. Inactive lifestyle gradually leads to the disruption of blood supply and venous thrombosis. Hence, it is necessary to include some physical exercises in your lifestyle, as they not only accelerate the psychomotor processes, but also slow down the process of human aging.

In order to improve children’s performance in this area, it is important to adhere to the following simple recommendations:

  1. Teach your child as many poems as you can;
  2. Play with your baby in classification games in order to develop the classification skills;
  3. Give your child a variety of different information. After a short amount of time, it is advisable to return it and refill with new information;
  4. Remember that the more knowledge, the better memory.

Thus, taking the above-mentioned information into consideration, it is possible to draw a conclusion that children’s and elderly individuals’ cognitive processes differ from that of adults. In particular, children’s memory is notable for its ability to memorize a vast amount of information and involves the storage of some specific data over a certain period of time. In return, the elderly are capable of receiving and holding a little less information than young/middle adults in the memory area. All in all, memory is an important area of study since it underlies people’s other cognitive processes.

 

References

Cognitive Aging: Imaging, Emotion, and Memory. (2007). Today’s Research on Aging, 5. Retrieved from http://www.prb.org/pdf07/todaysresearchaging5.pdf

Craik, et al. (2007). Cognitive rehabilitation in the elderly: Effects on memory. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 13, 132-142.

Fernandes, M., Ross, M., Wiegand, M., & Schryer, E. (2008). Are the Memories of Older Adults Positively Biased? Psychology and Aging, 23 (2), 297-306.

Porter, S., Bellhouse, S., McDougall, A., ten Brinke, L., & Wilson, K. (2010). A Prospective Investigation of the Vulnerability of Memory for Positive and Negative Emotional Scenes to the Misinformation Effect. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 42 (1), 55-61.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

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"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

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freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
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[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]
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