Cognitive Limitations in Aging and Psychopathology

This book examines the major progress made in recent psychological science in understanding the cognitive control of thought, emotion, and behavior and what happens when that control is diminished as a result of aging, depression, developmental disabilities, or psychopathology. Each chapter of this volume reports the most recent research by a leading researcher on the international stage. Topics include the effects on thought, emotion, and behavior by limitations in working memory, cognitive control, attention, inhibition, and reasoning processes. Other chapters review standard and emerging research paradigms and new findings on limitations in cognitive functioning associated with aging and psychopathology. The explicit goal behind this volume was to facilitate cross-area research and training by familiarizing researchers with paradigms and findings in areas different from but related to their own.

• The research on cognitive aging and psychopathology makes this a good single-volume reference and training handbook • Stress on novel research methods and tutorials on methods makes the book user-friendly for researchers with a wide variety of backgrounds • The book is generative in presenting an emerging agenda for future research projects and integrative attempts

Contents

Preface; Acknowledgments; 1. Cognitive limitations in aging and psychopathology: an introduction and a brief tutorial to research methods Randall W. Engle, Grzegorz Sedek, Ulrich von Hecker and Daniel N. McIntosh; Part I. Working Memory and Cognitive Functions: 2. Working memory capacity in hot and cold cognition Nash Unsworth, Richard P. Heitz and Randall W. Engle; 3. Age differences and Individual differences in cognitive functions Klaus Oberauer; 4. Stress and working memory: between-person and within-person relationships Martin Sliwinski, Joshua Smyth, Robert S. Stawski and Christina Wasylyshyn; Part II. Aging and Psychopathology of Cognitive Control: 5. The aging of cognitive control: studies of conflict processing, goal neglect, and error monitoring Robert West and Ritvij Bowry; 6. Cognitive control and schizophrenia: psychological and neural mechanisms Deanna M. Barch and Todd S. Braver; 7. Aging and varieties of cognitive control: a review of meta-analyses on Resistance to interference, coordination, and task switching, and an experimental exploration of age-sensitivity in the newly identified process of focus switching Paul Verhaeghen, John Cerella, Kara L. Bopp and Chandramallika Basak; 8. An ecological approach to studying aging and dual-task performance Karen Z. H. Li, Ralf Th. Krampe and Albina Bondar; 9. Cognitive performance after preexposure to uncontrollability and in a depressive state: going with a simpler ‘plan B’ Daniel N. McIntosh, Grzegorz Sedek, Susan Fojas, Aneta Brzezicka-Rotkiewicz and Miroslaw Kofta; Part III. Attention, Inhibition, and Reasoning Processes: 10. The nature of attentional bias in human anxiety Elaine Fox and George A. Georgiou; 11. Inhibition, rumination, and mood regulation in depression Jutta Joormann; 12. Aging and inhibitory processes in memory, attentional and motor tasks Elizabeth A. Maylor, Friederike Schlaghecken and Derrick G. Watson; 13. Impairments of memory and reasoning in patients with neuropsychiatric illness: disruptions of dynamic cognitive binding James A. Waltz; 14. Generative reasoning as influenced by depression, aging, stereotype threat and prejudice Ulrich von Hecker, Grzegorz Sedek, Kinga Piber-Dabrowska and Sylwia Bedynska.

Review

\' … the editors have assembled a strong cast of researchers to discuss the nature and causes of cognitive impairment in psychiatric disease and normal aging … the writer is clear and informative and this book should prove useful to any psychologist interested in aging or psychopathology.\' Journal of Psychological Medicine