The relevance of situation awareness in older adults’ cognitive functioning: a review |
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Authors: | Ryan J Caserta Lise Abrams |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Psychology, University of Florida, P.O. Box 112250, Gainesville, FL 32611-2250, USA;(2) Department of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology, University of Florida, P.O. Box 11825, 100 Florida Gym, Gainesville, FL 32611-8205, USA |
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Abstract: | Age-related declines in cognition may have detrimental effects on older adults’ ability to complete everyday activities that
young- and middle-aged individuals perform automatically. Theories of cognitive aging have found deficits in older adults’
fluid intelligence, capacity for inhibition, number of processing resources, and speed of processing, and in recent years,
studies have proposed cognitive strategies to ameliorate these declines. However, few strategies directly train the cognitive
strategies necessary to improve performance in dynamic environments and physical activities. One such strategy may be the
enhancement of situation awareness, the capability to perceive and understand one’s environment. Although the term has typically been applied to pilots and
other expert performers, situation awareness may also be relevant to cognitive aging, where older adults’ perception and comprehension
of their environment become critical to everyday functioning and physical activities. If older adults’ situation awareness
can be facilitated, then it may be possible to reduce the impact of age-related cognitive declines, allowing older adults
to successfully participate in dynamic situations and sports where the environment is constantly changing (e.g., driving and
tennis). The following review outlines cognitive deficits in aging, details their relation to situation awareness, and discusses
how training in situation awareness may reduce cognitive declines.
Portions of this paper were reported at the annual meeting of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical
Activity in June, 2005. |
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Keywords: | Situation awareness Cognitive aging Conceptual representation Training Physical activity |
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