The phenomenon of age-related cognitive decline has long been controversial, both in terms of mere existence, and with respect to how it is explained. Some researchers have dismissed it as an artifact of declining health or lower levels of education, and others have attributed it to general changes occurring in the external environment. Still other interpretations have been based on the "use it or lose it" principle -- known as the Disuse Hypothesis -- or on the idea that there are qualitative differences in either the structure or the process of cognition across the adult years. Perhaps the...

This monograph is the written version of a series of talks delivered as recent MacEachran Lectures at the University of Alberta. The informal style of the lectures, and the inclusion of a relatively large number of figures, has been preserved in order to keep the monograph faithful to the concept of an individual attempting to integrate his own research into a reasonably coherent framework. Although the volume is very much a personal account of one individual's perspective, the studies reported are naturally a product of many collaborations as well as inspirations from colleagues. The...

The phenomenon of age-related cognitive decline has long been controversial, both in terms of mere existence, and with respect to how it is explained. Some researchers have dismissed it as an artifact of declining health or lower levels of education, and others have attributed it to general changes occurring in the external environment. Still other interpretations have been based on the "use it or lose it" principle -- known as the Disuse Hypothesis -- or on the idea that there are qualitative differences in either the structure or the process of cognition across the adult years. Perhaps the...

Essential Papers on the Psychology of Aging contains the classic papers on the period of human development that begins with young adulthood and ends with old age and death. Including material on theory and methodology; basic psychological processes; personality and social psychology; and clinical, applied, and health psychology, the volume presents the best work published in the field, from classic papers to cutting-edge research.

Contributors to the volume include P. B. Baltes, J. E. Birren, W. E. Henry, K. F. Riegel, K. W. Schaie, D. Arenberg, H. P. Bahrick, L. K. Hall, D....

For some time now, the study of cognitive development has been far and away the most active discipline within developmental psychology. Although there would be much disagreement as to the exact proportion of papers published in developmental journals that could be considered cognitive, 50% seems like a conservative estimate. Hence, a series of scholarly books to be devoted to work in cognitive development is especially appropriate at this time. The Springer Series in Cognitive Development contains two basic types of books, namely, edited collections of original chapters by several authors,...