Problemset
Title
Essay Questions
Introductory
Text
Question 1
Describe three ways in which the eye/vision changes with advanced age.
Hint:
Type:
Essay
Feedback: pp. 111-115 There are many changes to choose from; the lens (thicker,
yellowing), vitreous humor (floaters), presbyopia, distance accommodation,
acuity (dynamic but minimal change in static), light/dark adaptation, and
peripheral vision. It should be relatively easy to find three to discuss.
Question 2
Should older adults be allowed to renew their driver's licenses? If not why not? If so, should
they be subject to more stringent testing and/or renew more often?
Type:
Hint:
Essay
Feedback: Box 6-1 You might argue that they should not be allowed to renew at all or at
least have to renew more frequently and be more carefully tested because of
the changes that occur in vision, hearing, and response time. You should be
able to build a pretty strong argument based on these changes. On the other
hand, you might argue that there are good and bad drivers at every age, older
drivers with some difficulty appear to adjust (e.g., drive less at night), and that
perception is not always influenced by changes in senses.
Question 3
Define presbycusis and discuss its frequency and influence on speech perception.
Hint:
Loss of hearing for higher pitch.
Type:
Feedback: pp. 115-118 Loss of hearing for higher pitch occurs in about 29% of older
Essay
Question 4
adults (see Table 3-2.and is more frequent for men than women. Talk about
the research on speech perception being very good when speech is heard but
less with other voices and especially with static noise. You might talk about
women generally having higher pitch voices and so being harder for men with
presbycusis to hear.
Describe three disorders of vision and/or hearing that occur more frequently in old age.
Hint:
Type:
Essay
Feedback: Table 6-1 provides all the information you will need to answer this question; it
describes eight disorders.
Question 5
How might loss of smell, taste, touch, and balance be senescent?
Hint:
What will you be more vulnerable to if you lose these senses?
Type:
Feedback: pp. 118-120 What aroma would warn you that something is wrong. You'd be in
Essay
Question 6
Type:
Essay
danger if you didn't smell this. What taste? What touch? Would you be more
likely to fall if you could no longer maintain your balance?
Why have researchers concluded that the slowing that occurs with aging is in the central
processing that takes place in the brain rather than in the sense organs or muscles?
Describe the relevant research.
Hint:
Think of the different types of reaction time and what is involved in each.
Feedback: pp. 120-123 The mental processing becomes more complex as the task
increases in complexity but the senses and muscles remain essentially the
same. Describe how reaction differences between young and old change as a
function of task complexity (simple, choice, and complex reaction times).
Question 7
Describe some of the factors that increase the risk of a fatal fall?
Hint:
Type:
Essay
Feedback: pp. 123-125 Important factors to describe include gender differences, ethnic
group differences, changes in gait after a fall, medications, problems with
vision, low level of physical functioning, having had a prior fall, and fear of
falling.
Question 8
What can be done to decrease the risk of falling?
Hint:
Besides remove banana peels from the floor.
Type:
Feedback: p. 125 Environmental changes should be discussed and include better lighting,
Essay
colors used on stairways, better footwear, and picking things up off the floor
(throw rugs and not just banana peels). Tai chi should also be discussed as a
way of restoring a sense of balance.
Question 9
Why does time seem to pass more quickly as we grow older?
Hint:
Does it relate to what has been done in that time period?
Type:
Feedback: pp. 125-127 Memory and novelty seem to be the major factors. Time must
Essay
have gone fairly rapidly because nothing got accomplished (if we would have
had more time, we would have accomplished much more) or it's the same
thing over and over (a year of old things seems shorter than a month of new
things).