Everyday Cognition in Adulthood and Late Life [Paperback]

The authors present relevant data that open up new directions for those studying cognitive aging.An attempt to understand human cognitive abilities as they are manifested in natural contexts gives rise to an analysis of the pros and cons of the laboratory vs. the real world and opens up new directions of study.An attempt to understand human cognitive abilities as they are manifested in natural contexts gives rise to an analysis of the pros and cons of the laboratory vs. the real world and opens up new directions of study.Provides a firm theoretical grounding for the increasing movement of cognitive psychologists, neuropsychologists and their students beyond the laboratory, in an attempt to understand human cognitive abilities as they are manifested in natural contexts. The pros and cons of the laboratory and the real world--the problems of generalizability versus rigor--are thoroughly analyzed, and practical escapes from what has become a false dichotomy are suggested. The authors present relevant data that open up new directions for those studying cognitive aging. Finally, they consider the applications of the new knowledge for clinicians and educators.Part I. Adult Cognitive Abilities in the Laboratory and in Real-life Settings: Basic Theoretical and Methodological Issues; 1. Introduction to Part I: the how, when and why of studying everyday cognition David C. Rubin; Part IA. Systematic Approaches to Laboratory and Real-world Research: 2. Representative design and the quality of generalization Lewis Petrinovich; 3. The myth of external validity Douglas G. Mook; 4. Functional explanations of memory Darryl Bruce; 5. General systems theory: a rationale for the study of everyday memory Jan D. Sinnott; Part IB. Combining Laboratory and Real-world Research: 6. The laboratory and ecology: supplementary sources of data for memory research Harry P. Bahrick; 7. Issues of regularity and control: confessions of a regularity freak David C. Rubin; 8. Finding the bloody horlI