Awards for Distinguished Scientific Contributions.

Discusses contributions of Ursula Bellugi and Edward S. Klima, Walter Kintsch, and K. Warner Schaie, the 1992 recipients of the Awards for Distinguished Scientific Contributions presented by the American Psychological Association. Bellugi and Klima are awarded for their contributions to the neuropsychology of language. Kintsch is recognized for his contributions to the analysis of text memory. Schaie is recognized for enlarging the conception of developmental psychology to include the entire life span and for empirical contributions to adult development and aging. Biographies for each recipient are given. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An extension of developmental models that separate ontogenetic changes and cohort differences.

Briefly reviews the developmental models of P. B. Baltes, R. B. Cattell, and K. W. Schaie. Baltes's original criticisms of Schaie's trifactor model are reinforced on the basis of additional considerations. Cattell's proposal for separating developmental curves into genetic and environmental additive component curves is closely scrutinized. Baltes's bifactor model (age and cohort), which involves longitudinal and cross-sectional sequential methods for data gathering, is extended to include a 3rd strategy in the form of the time-lag sequential method. 2 new possibilities for applying the bifactor developmental model to ability factors are considered: (a) changes in heritability ratios, and (b) changes in cognitive complexity or the trait pattern (the number of factors and their interrelationships). Some methodological problems associated with the proposed extensions and implications for future research are briefly discussed. (90 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the plasticity of intelligence in adulthood and old age: Where Horn and Donaldson fail.

Challenges the critique by J. L. Horn and G. Donaldson (see PA, Vol 57:Issue 4) of the K. W. Schaie and P. B. Baltes research and writings on intelligence in adulthood and old age, contending that it seriously misrepresents Schaie's and Baltes's theoretical positions and data interpretations. It is noted that Schaie and Baltes do not reject in toto the notion of intellectual decline; within the framework of a dialectical interpretation of intelligence in adulthood and old age, they emphasize plasticity as evidenced in large interindividual differences, multidimensionality, multidirectionality, modifiability, and the joint import of age- and cohort-related determinants. When arguing for the adequacy of a fluid-crystallized model of intelligence, Horn and Donaldson's critique conveniently de-emphasizes the empirical significance of cohort effects. Contrary to a process-oriented dialectical view, the critique (assuming fairly invariant and fixed change patterns) espouses a model of adult gerontological development which Schaie and Baltes judge to be anachronistic. It is concluded that Horn and Donaldson present a reactionary critique which, if taken too seriously, is likely to inhibit much-needed progress in the field of intelligence in adulthood and old age. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Handbook of the psychology of aging, 7th edition.

Reviews the book, Handbook of the psychology of aging, 7th edition edited by K. Warner Schaie and Sherry L. Willis (see record 2010-26788-000). The Handbook of the psychology of aging has been a fixture since its inception in 1977. Although the departure of former senior editor James E. Birren has given rise to a “generational turnover” (p. xi), the new volume keeps alive the interdisciplinary spirit of the series by continuing to combine cutting-edge basic and applied perspectives from a diverse set of contributors. Section editors and authors include senior figures in the field who have contributed to prior volumes of the Handbook, as well as new scientific leaders who may not yet be “household names.” The volume is organized into four sections: theory and methods, neuroscience and cognition, social and health factors, and psychopathology. Each section contains 3–8 chapters of varying structure and length. With the exception of the first section, each section includes topics that were not included, or received significantly less coverage, in prior editions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Faith is not enough: A response to the Baltes-Schaie claim that intelligence does not wane.

Faith has been defined as unfounded belief in the occurrence of the improbable. This seems to describe well the adherence of P. B. Baltes and K. W. Schaie (see PA, Vol 52:5053; also Schaie—Vol 53:7133) to a claim that little or no important age-related intellectual decline occurs. In replying to criticisms of their arguments that such decline is myth, the present paper argues that Baltes and Schaie (1976) have (a) obscured the basic points at issue by raising diversionary questions about plasticity and "dialectical posture"; (b) advanced the untenable argument that the search for lawful explanation of complex phenomena is futile; (c) fallaciously argued that criticisms are suspect unless they are based on a "theory-free" inductive interpretation of findings; (d) ignored results indicating decline and positive bias in the very data cited to support their argument for the myth of intellectual decline; (e) failed to explain what is systematic about the significance of the omnibus F test for cohort "effects," beyond what can parsimoniously be accounted for in terms of the confounded age variable; (f) not responded to reasoning suggesting that between-cohort differences in education, if these account for important intellectual variation, should be reflected in a manner contrary to what is actually observed; and (g) asserted that no statistically reliable age decrement occurs in a set of data for which analyses demonstrate statistically significant linear decline. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The graying of achievement motivation.

The increasing preponderance of older persons in American society has prompted psychologists to consider developmental processes from a life-span perspective. While research and theory related to achievement motivation are inherently associated with earlier stages of development, the study of achievement-related motives and patterns in the later years is necessary for a more complete understanding of their place in human development. Additionally, such a study should prove profitable in stimulating new approaches to a general understanding of motivation and achievement. It is suggested that recent cross-cultural work on achievement motivation can provide an appropriate analog as well as specific procedures for cross-age studies. The study of older persons may eventuate in a redefinition of achievement motivation. Specifically considered is the possibility that more extrinsic, competitive patterns of achievement give way with age to more intrinsic, task-oriented patterns and that, with an aging population, this shift may be reflected in the culture as a whole. (50 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sources of tension in the aging mother and adult daughter relationship.

This study explored sources of tension in the aging mother-adult daughter relationship. Forty-eight dyads of healthy mothers over the age of 70 years (mean age = 76 years) and their adult daughters (mean age = 44 years) were interviewed individually and then together about their relationship. Responses to questions about tension were coded as referring to intrusiveness, exclusion, inappropriate care of self or other, or as referring to general habits or traits. The term developmental schism is introduced to explain possible sources of tension in this relationship. Aging mothers and middle-aged daughters are at different points in their adult development; developmental discrepancies may foster interpersonal tension in their relationship. Mothers and daughters who described sources of difficulty that were not related to developmental differences had more positive regard for the relationship. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cohort differences in cognitive aging and terminal decline in the Seattle Longitudinal Study.

Life span researchers have long been interested in how and why fundamental aspects of human ontogeny differ between cohorts of people who have lived through different historical epochs. When examined at the same age, later born cohorts are often cognitively and physically fitter than earlier born cohorts. Less is known, however, about cohort differences in the rate of cognitive aging and if, at the very end of life, pervasive mortality-related processes overshadow and minimize cohort differences. We used data on 5 primary mental abilities from the Seattle Longitudinal Study (Schaie, 2005) to compare both age-related and mortality-related changes between earlier born cohorts (1886–1913) and later born cohorts (1914–1948). Our models covary for several individual and cohort differences in central indicators of life expectancy, education, health, and gender. Age-related growth models corroborate and extend earlier findings by documenting level differences at age 70 of up to 0.50 SD and less steep rates of cognitive aging on all abilities between 50 and 80 years of age favoring the later born cohort. In contrast, mortality-related models provide limited support for positive cohort differences. The later born cohort showed steeper mortality-related declines. We discuss possible reasons why often reported positive secular trends in age-related processes may not generalize to the vulnerable segment of the population that is close to death and suggest routes for further inquiry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Studying Individual Aging in an Interindividual Context: Typical Paths of Age-Related, Dementia-Related, and Mortality-Related Cognitive Development in Old Age.

This study has 2 objectives: (a) to explore typical paths of cognitive development associated with aging, terminal decline, and dementia and (b) to promote and illustrate an individual-oriented approach to the study of cognitive aging based on longitudinal panel data from a population-based sample (N = 500; age rangeT1= 60-80, where T refers to time) tested at 3 occasions 5 years apart. Results document interindividual differences in multivariate patterns of change. Although cognitive changes generally covary, the present study indicates that subgroups of individuals develop along different paths characterized by selective changes in subsets of cognitive functions. Typical progression of dementia followed a developmental cascade from low declarative memory, via low functioning across all observed cognitive measures, to dementia diagnosis, and finally, death. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Awards for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology: Paul B. Baltes.

Cites Paul B. Baltes for the American Psychological Association's Award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology. Baltes is an international psychologist who has held academic and administrative posts all over the world. He had a principal role in the creation of the International Society for the Study of Behavioral Development, which now brings together more than 1,000 scientists from 50 countries. He is recognized for his scholarly and scientific contributions to the history and theory of developmental psychology, and the multidisciplinary study of age and aging, intelligence and personality, the psychology of wisdom, and developmental research methodology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical adolescent psychology: What it is, and what it needs to be.

This commentary on the special section on clinical adolescent psychology (G. Holmbeck & P. Kendall, 2002) reviews and critiques the conceptual and empirical articles that this compilation comprises. As articulated in the conceptual contributions to this collection, two fundamental principles should guide research on the etiology, prevention, and treatment of psychological disorder and dysfunction during adolescence: First, drawing on the field of developmental psychopathology, the study of clinical adolescent psychology should focus on the trajectories of disorder that precede, characterize, and follow adolescence. Second, drawing on the literature on normative adolescent development, the study of clinical adolescent psychology must proceed with an explicit recognition of the unique biological, cognitive, psychosocial, and contextual features that define adolescence as a developmental period. Although the study of clinical adolescent psychology, as evidenced by this collection of articles, is appropriately grounded in the broader enterprise of developmental psychopathology, less progress has been made with respect to die integration of the study of clinical phenomena in adolescence with the study of normative adolescent development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Jerome Kagan.

Jerome Kagan is recognized for his achievements in psychology. This article provides a citation explaining his accomplishments, a biography and a selected bibliography. The citation is as follows: "For scientific leadership of the highest order, for a research career marked by never-failing zest and creativity, and for findings that have helped us understand the constant vs. the changing in the human personality, the early organization of mind and temperament, and the formation of ideas about the self. As much as any American, Jerome Kagan has led the great growth of developmental psychology in our time. He has been an inspired textbook writer and teacher. He has brought our scientific findings, mixed with his own special vision and wisdom, to the service of social programs and policies for children." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Differential expression of rat brain synaptic proteins in development and aging

We have previously reported the differential involvement of synaptic proteins in Alzheimer's disease (AD). As AD is an aging-associated disease, in the present study we examined the developmental and aging-related changes in synaptic proteins such as synaptophysin, synaptobrevin, synaptotagmin, synaptosomal-associated protein 25 (SNAP-25), syntaxin 1/HPC-1 and drebrin in the rat brain. Immunoblot analyses of brain extracts from embryonic day 19 (E19) to postnatal 96-week-old rats indicated that the protein level of synaptophysin and synaptobrevin increased after birth, being highest at 24 weeks, and then decreased with aging. Synaptotagmin was detected at E19, with levels increasing after birth to 96 weeks. SNAP-25 levels were highest at 4 weeks, and then decreased with aging. Syntaxin 1/HPC-1 levels were high at E19 and 1 week, decreasing rapidly from 2 weeks onwards, and drebrin levels were highest at E19 and 1 week, and decreased during aging. The present results suggest that the expression of each synaptic protein is differentially regulated in development and aging.     

The (re)discovery of motor development: Learning new things from an old field.

The articles in this special issue reflect a resurgence of interest in motor development. Just as the classic studies of McGraw and Gesell helped to establish the scientific study of human ontogeny, so contemporary studies of motor processes can contribute to our overall understanding of development. The articles in this issue illustrate several general principles: (a) The developing system is the proper unit for study, (b) the task assembles behavior, (c) developmental processes are nonlinear, (d) action and perception form an inseparable loop, and (e) developmental studies should look at variability as well as modal patterns. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Youth sport participation—a view of the issues: Introduction to the special section.

Sport participation among children and youth is ubiquitous in U.S. society. As such, it is imperative to understand how and under what conditions youth engagement in organized sport promotes or interferes with development. Each article in this special section has a unique lens on sport programs and advances our understanding about the contributions of individual characteristics, features of the context, and the process between the two that leads to different developmental trajectories for youth. In combination, the perspectives and findings provided in these articles can help guide future research and the development of programs and interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of food acceptance patterns.

Suckling and feeding are central to the child's health and development. In addition, feeding provides a context for early parent–child interaction. Despite the centrality of feeding to the child's development, it has been largely neglected by developmental psychologists as an area of study. To interest the developmental researcher in the acquisition of food acceptance patterns, this article provides a rationale for the significance of the study of early feeding and delineates major questions and issues that require investigation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory and Aging in Context.

Much research has indicated that aging is accompanied by decrements in memory performance across a wide variety of tasks and situations. A dominant perspective is that these age differences reflect normative changes in the integrity and efficiency of the information-processing system. Contextual perspectives of development, however, argue for consideration of a broader constellation of factors as determinants of both intraindividual change and interindividual variation in memory functioning. The validity of the contextual perspective in characterizing the relationship between aging and memory is examined through a review of studies exploring a variety of alternative mechanisms associated with age differences in performance. It is concluded that a more multidimensional approach to the study of aging and memory is warranted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dissemination of primary research data in psychology.

"During the past decade the development of new techniques in microreproduction has offered psychologists the revolutionary possibility of publishing large amounts of material in small editions at very low cost… . Three distinct patterns for the publication of primary records now seem possible." First, workers holding sets of data may independently arrange with microtext publishers; second, individuals or groups may initiate highly specialized series of primary records; third, a stable publication series may be developed under the sponsorship of our professional societies. Data often inadequately or incompletely exploited may be made available to other research workers by such arrangement. As many as 30 to 60 pages of material can be put on a single microcard. The major disadvantage of microscopy as a medium of scholarly publication is the expensiveness of good microcard readers. At present inexpensive desk readers are in developmental stages. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How and why we age

After performing the miracles that takes us from conception to birth, and then to sexual maturation and adulthood, natural selection was unable to favor the development of a more elementary mechanism that would simply maintain those earlier miracles forever. The manifestations of this failure are called aging. Because few feral animals age, evolution could not have favored a genetic program for age changes. Natural selection favors animals that are most likely to become reproductively successful by developing better survival strategies and greater reserve capacity in vital systems to better escape predation, disease, accidents, and environmental extremes. Natural selection diminishes after reproductive success because the species will not benefit from members favored for greater longevity. The level of physiological reserve remaining after reproductive maturity determines longevity and evolves incidental to the selection process that acts on earlier developmental events. Physiological reserve does not renew at the same rate that it incurs losses because molecular disorder increases at a rate greater than the capacity for repair. These are age changes, and they increase vulnerability to predation, accidents, or disease. Failure to distinguish aging from disease has not only blurred our efforts to understand the fundamental biology of aging, but it has profound political and economic consequences that compromise the field of biogerontology. Changes attributable to disease, or pathological change, can be distinguished from age changes for at least four important reasons. Unlike any known disease, (1) age changes occur in every human given sufficient time, (2) age changes cross virtually all species barriers, (3) no disease afflicts all members of a species only after the age of reproductive success, and (4) aging occurs in all feral animals subsequently protected by humans, even when that species probably has not experienced aging for thousands or millions of years. The resolution of age-associated diseases will not advance our knowledge of aging, just as the resolution of the diseases of childhood did not advance our knowledge of childhood development. We have failed to convey that greater support must be given to a question that is rarely posed. It is a question that is applicable to all age-associated diseases, and its resolution will also advance our fundamental knowledge of aging: "Why are old cells more vulnerable to pathology and disease than are young cells?" During the first half of this century it was believed that because cultured normal cells were immortal, aging must be caused by extra-cellular events. Thirty-five years ago we overthrough this dogma when we found that normal cells do have a limited capacity to divide, and that age changes can occur intracellularly. We also observed that only abnormal or cancer cells are immortal. Normal cells are mortal because telomeres shorten at each division. Immortal cancer cells express the enzyme telomerase that prevents shortening. Recently, it was discovered that when the catalytic subunit of the telomerase gene is inserted into normal cells they become immortal.