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In examining the Stroop Effect, an older person's reaction time in response to color recognition is supposedly slower than that of a younger person. Is it because of the physiological deteriation of the older brain or is there some other factors involved?

2006-12-05 12:23:15 · 4 answers · asked by anniegko 2 in Social Science Psychology

4 answers

While I certainly don't have the credentials to question this type of study/research, it seems to me this conclusion is to simple.

There are people who have extremely quick reaction times and people who don't and a bunch of people in between. Of course, if the issue is about only very elderly people (over 80) then there is, as far as I know, some loss of brain cells. There are also often depression, stress, and medical conditions or medications.

It has been found that drivers in their sixties have fewer accidents than drivers of any other age. No accidents may be association with reaction times.

Did whoever came to the conclusion you stated evaluated the same group of people, say, even ten years starting when they were twenty and then on until they were 80?

What are they calling "older"? 70 plus? 80 plus? Are they saying that brains slow down gradually over decades inevitably? (I know for a fact - as do other mature people I know - that people can operate far more efficiently sometimes at middle-age than they could when they were 25.) Did they factor in people who were faster than average when they were young and establish whether or not they continued to be faster than average later, even if they were a little slower than their previous reaction time?

Regardless of my questionning the premise, if you're talking about people over 70 or 80 these are people who - for starters - have a lot of life's grief to still always be kind of thinking of. They've lived with a lot of loss, and that takes it toll "mood-wise". They often have medical conditions that make life difficult for them, and that can contribute to their unhappiness. They are often on medications that affect any number of things. Medical conditions and medications can cause some loss of brain cells. The brain can be affected by heart disease and circulatory problems. People who are not happy can have whatever set of "sadness chemicals" get going, and that can cause a person to have difficulty concentrating or operating at their best intellectual capacity. High blood pressure and elevated cortisol levels (both caused by stress) can cause trouble concentrating. People who have been so exhausted by stress they "run out of juices" (adrenal fatigue) can also have trouble functioning.

I would assume increased vision problems could have some kind of effect as well.

I continue to question whether the person who started out with (if you could assign values/scores to reaction time), say, a 120 in reaction time as compared to someone other young person who started out with an 80 in reaction time may not - at 75 years old - have gone down to, say, a 100 reaction time; while the other person would have gone down to, say, a 60 reaction time. In other words, can the statement that all older people's reactions times are slower than all younger person's reaction times really be accurate?

Something that should be considered is this: Suppose that if there really is a legitimate faster reaction time for young people, might that be associated with the needs of the more immature brain; and might that - like, say, growth spurts - be something that is not needed when a person reaches a level of maturity. In other words, might it be the younger person's immaturity that leads to some "immaturity related" hormones/chemicals that result in a faster reaction time (which would make the faster reaction time a function of being incomplete rather than better); while the older person with a mature brain has reached a more balanced reaction time (as a general level of height gets reached at some point in growth and then stops once that type of maturing has been completed).

If its true and proven legitimately that older people are slower with this particular thing I would think there's also the chance their brains are so "ingrained" with certain types of information it could be more difficult for them to "get past" what is ingrained. I compare it to how young children can learn to speak many languages quite easily while once people's language/brains have reached a certain point it can be very challenging to learn a new language. Maybe older people just have a "stronger" brain to overcome in tests like the color tests.

Just some thoughts on this subject. I find I have a tendency to want to defend people that psychology/psychiatry often generalizes about and/or tends to lean toward erring on the side of underestimating.

2006-12-05 13:10:27 · answer #1 · answered by WhiteLilac1 6 · 0 0

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2016-09-03 11:58:40 · answer #2 · answered by lil 4 · 0 0

Because the part of the brain that does that is now used for tolerating young people.

2006-12-05 12:25:33 · answer #3 · answered by stinkbait30 2 · 0 0

because and older person lose their main whine tau get older and a younger person now how to do thing more fast then older person

2006-12-05 12:34:29 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

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