This document contains a 46 question pretest for a psychology course on life span development. The pretest covers topics related to cognitive and intellectual changes in late adulthood, memory processes, age-related diseases like Alzheimer's and dementia, social and cultural aspects of aging, relationships, death and dying processes. The questions are multiple choice and test understanding of concepts from chapters 24-26 of the course textbook.

1. Psych 41 - Life Span Development
Pretest - Chapters 24, 25, 26
Summer 2009 (Dr. S. Lee)
Please complete and bring to class on Wednesday for Review.
1. People over age 80 who tested at a high level of intelligence in earlier years will surpass:
A) their peers.
B) many younger adults.
C) themselves.
D) a and b only
E) a, b, and c
2. In Schaie's Seattle Longitudinal Study, the cognitive decline of late adulthood was most evident in which
of the following?
A) fluid intelligence
B) verbal meaning
C) processing speed
D) inductive reasoning
3. For the average individual in late adulthood, traditional tests of intelligence demonstrate that:
A) cognitive abilities remain stable.
B) cognitive abilities continue to increase.
C) cognitive abilities decline.
D) some cognitive abilities increase and others decline.
4. Older adults tend to ______ sensory deficits and ______ memory deficits.
A) be unaware of; underestimate
B) be unaware of; overestimate
C) overestimate; underestimate
D) overestimate; overestimate
5. Which of the following types of events are remembered best by older adults?
A) happy events that occurred between the ages of 10 and 30
B) sad events that occurred between the ages of 10 and 30
C) happy events that occurred between the ages of 50 and 70
D) sad events that occurred between the ages of 50 and 70
6. Storage mechanisms, retrieval strategies, selective attention, and logical analysis are all considered:
A) implicit memories.
B) explicit memories.
C) control processes.
D) unconscious processes.
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2. 7. Compared to implicit memory, older adults' explicit memory is:
A) worse.
B) better.
C) the same.
D) more unconscious.
8. Which of the following is an example of selective optimization with compensation in the older brain?
A) Attention-deficit disorder is caused by an immature prefrontal cortex.
B) Older brains naturally activate more neurons than they once did for a particular task.
C) As the control processes become weaker, the brain more strongly differentiates which of its parts are
involved in specific tasks.
D) Inhibition fails and thoughts have a stronger tendency to wander when people are old.
9. What advice could you give a middle-aged adult who is concerned about the effects of secondary aging on
brain function in old age?
A) exercise
B) try to avoid depression
C) eat healthy
D) all of the above
10. Which of the following is a true statement about the relation between ageism and the cognitive
functioning of older adults?
A) Ageism is unrelated to cognitive functioning.
B) Ageism is the source of all differences between the cognitive functioning of younger and older adults.
C) Ageism causes some differences between the cognitive functioning of younger and older adults.
D) Poor cognitive functioning in older adults causes ageism cross-culturally.
11. Which of the following is a true statement about testing the memories of older adults?
A) They tend to do better than younger adults in both laboratory experiments and in their daily lives.
B) They tend to do worse than younger adults in both laboratory experiments and in their daily lives.
C) They do better in laboratory experiments than they do in their daily lives.
D) They do worse in laboratory experiments than they do in their daily lives.
12. Dementia is:
A) benign forgetfulness.
B) a problem that affects most of the elderly.
C) a problem that affects only the elderly.
D) the pathological loss of brain functioning.
13. In an experiment by Moscovitch (1982), when older and younger adults were asked to call an answering
service once a week without using any reminders:
A) more younger than older adults made the call.
B) more older than younger adults made the call.
C) few adults of any age made the call.
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3. D) some of the elderly used reminders anyway.
14. The biggest risk factor for Alzheimer's disease is being:
A) female.
B) of European descent.
C) old.
D) male.
15. Going outside barefoot in winter, walking through the neighborhood naked, or forgetting about the lighted
stove are behaviors often found in the ______ stage of Alzheimer's disease.
A) first
B) second
C) third
D) fourth
16. Multi-infarct dementia may be prevented by:
A) regular physical exercise.
B) memory exercises.
C) vitamin C.
D) taking early retirement.
17. A disease that can produce dementia is:
A) tuberculosis.
B) AIDS.
C) sickle-cell anemia.
D) pneumonia.
18. An elderly person who expresses serious worry about losing his or her intellectual abilities is most likely
suffering from:
A) a brain tumor.
B) Parkinson's disease.
C) depression.
D) Alzheimer's disease.
19. Abraham Maslow maintains that older adults are:
A) more likely than younger people to reach self-actualization.
B) less likely than younger people to reach self-actualization.
C) just as likely as younger people to reach self-actualization.
D) too emotionally impaired to reach self-actualization.
20. Research on wisdom finds that:
A) a minority of adults are wise.
B) wisdom is more common at age 30 than age 70.
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4. C) most of the elderly are wise.
D) wisdom is never found in adults younger than 50.
21. Self-actualization refers to:
A) reaching one's full potential.
B) realizing all of the error one has made over the lifespan.
C) recovering from a mental illness.
D) preparing to die.
22. An elderly woman who seeks to integrate her unique personal experiences with the future of her
community is in Erikson's stage of:
A) generativity versus stagnation.
B) optimization versus compensation.
C) activity versus disengagement.
D) integrity versus despair.
23. Which of the following is true of selective optimization with compensation?
A) It involves older adults figuring out how to accomplish what they want despite their limitations.
B) Older adults who use it are those with poor self-efficacy.
C) It was first emphasized by Freud and Erikson.
D) It expects that older adults will attempt to continue to do everything they have always done.
24. The idea that opportunities and roles are determined based on age is referred to as:
A) age stratification.
B) selective optimization.
C) self-actualization.
D) social stagnation.
25. The current view of stratification theorists is that:
A) elderly people need to remain active in a variety of social spheres and withdraw only because of
ageism.
B) most older people become more selective in their social contacts and are happier as a result of it.
C) people's lives are constantly changing along with their social contexts.
D) aging makes a person's social sphere shrink, resulting in withdrawal and passivity.
26. Critical race theory sees race as:
A) purely physiological.
B) no longer a barrier to success.
C) a social construct whose utility is determined by society.
D) a problem that disappears in old age.
27. According to continuity theory, the Big Five personality traits:
A) change in middle and late adulthood.
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5. B) are maintained throughout old age.
C) suddenly change after age 60.
D) follow no predictable pattern.
28. Which of the following statements about older people and religion is NOT true?
A) Older people are more likely to attend weekly religious services than are younger people.
B) Religious faith tends to foster health.
C) Religious faith increases with age.
D) Religious institutions are particularly important to older Americans who feel alienated from the larger
society.
29. The requirement for membership in AARP is that the person is:
A) retired.
B) over 50.
C) over 70.
D) collecting Social Security.
30. Most studies of marriages of long duration find that compared to younger adults, the elderly are:
A) more open to the possibility of divorcing.
B) happier in their marriages.
C) unhappy, but not inclined to divorce.
D) less committed to marriage as an institution.
31. Elderly men may be more troubled by losing a spouse than elderly women are because men:
A) need companionship more.
B) are less likely to seek out comfort and help.
C) are more likely to remain alone.
D) have greater difficulty concealing their grief.
32. When death or distance cuts off a close friend, an older adult is likely to:
A) become physically ill.
B) become depressed.
C) make another friend.
D) do none of the above.
33. Ed and Barbara are retired and in their 70s. We would expect their relationship with their children to
include:
A) financial assistance from their children.
B) visits from their children on invitation.
C) children living with them.
D) frequent, spontaneous get-togethers.
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6. 34. Which of the following is one of the IADLs?
A) eating
B) toileting
C) grocery shopping
D) dressing
35. Which of the following responses to weakening leg muscles in an older person is the best response in
terms of maintaining self-efficacy?
A) purchasing a walker
B) beginning a strength training regimen
C) becoming a chair-bound invalid
D) adjust to staying only on the first floor of a home
36. Most elder abuse is committed by:
A) nursing home workers.
B) health care providers.
C) social workers.
D) adult children.
37. The function of the hospice is to:
A) save the terminally ill.
B) allow people to die in peace.
C) segregate the dying from those who might recover.
D) convince the dying to accept death.
38. Which of the following is an example of passive euthanasia?
A) A doctor gives a patient a prescription for a lethal medication.
B) A husband injects his wife with an overdose of her medication, without her requesting this of him.
C) A patient asks his adult child to give him a lethal injection.
D) A doctor does not resuscitate a patient who stops breathing.
39. Which of the following is a true statement about living wills?
A) Living wills enable health care professionals to make decisions exactly as the patient would have
expressed, with no uncertainty.
B) Family members may disagree about how much suffering is acceptable, even when a living will
exists.
C) Low income and minority patients are especially likely to have a living will.
D) Even the most definitive living will cannot answer every question because terms like “extraordinary
measures” mean different things to different people.
40. Which of the following is a requirement for legal physician-assisted suicide in Oregon?
A) The patient is certified terminally ill by the doctor involved.
B) The patient is mentally ill.
C) The family doesn't object.
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7. D) The patient must wait 15 days between asking for the prescription and receiving it.
41. In most African traditions, death provides:
A) a lower status for elders.
B) an occasion for affirmation of the entire community.
C) a community celebration of separation from its collective past.
D) an affirmation of faith in Allah.
42. In Hinduism, death is:
A) welcomed if it is a holy death.
B) a reminder of one's own mortality.
C) an affirmation of community.
D) an elevation to the status of elders.
43. In Christianity, death is thought to be:
A) not an end but a beginning of eternity in heaven or hell.
B) an affirmation of connection with the past.
C) a reminder of one's own mortality.
D) an affirmation of nature and of community values.
44. Mourners are most likely to respond to death with shock and a search for meaning when the:
A) dead person is a relative they never liked.
B) dead person is a spouse.
C) death was long anticipated.
D) death was sudden and violent.
45. Mrs. Cannon has been diagnosed as terminally ill, but she insists she will recover because her laboratory
results were mixed up with someone else's. Kubler-Ross would say that Mrs. Cannon is in the emotional
stage of:
A) acceptance.
B) bargaining.
C) denial.
D) depression.
46. According to Kubler-Ross, the first stage of dying is:
A) anger.
B) denial.
C) depression.
D) bargaining.
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