Question

identify at least two different occupations requiring rapid reaction times and find out whether they have age restrictions. Debate the pros and cons of this based upon what you have read. Then, in another section, think of everyday examples of choice and complex reaction time tasks. Describe a type of common everyday tasks for each that you believe illustrate those. Discuss if you would feel comfortable with older adults performing these activities? Then conclude with a design you would come up with for an “optimal living environment for elderly adults, taking into account the normative sensory, physical, and information-processing changes you have been reading about.

Answer 1

The reaction time come under cognitive psychology.When a stimulus is presented to an individual, he/she may take a certain time to respond to it. The time that is between presetation of stimulus and the individual's response ,the individual is processing the information in his brain. So reaction time can be defined as the duration of time taken by an individual to respond to a stimulus when presented to him.

In simple reaction time a single  stimulus is presented and a Known single response is produced. Eg-When an athlet starts his racing when hearing the shooting sound of the gun. On the other hand in the case of choice reaction time ,there will more than one stimulus and and each response made by the individual is associated with different stimulus. Eg -In car driving an individual has to response to different stimulus at a particular time and it ia complex task,Another example is the performance of a cricket player.

Aging is a naural process. The style and way of doing all things may change accoding to aging.Studies shows that there will be decline in the area of vision and hearing. Good auditory and visual ability will certainly  trigger the response of the individual.Reflexes go slow with age.There will be decline in visuospatial abilities in aged people,. This visuospatial ability help a person to recognize ,organize and interpret what one sees. and it is also the ability to understand what we see around us and interpret spatial relationships, Eg to estimate distance between two objects, recognizing shapes, foloowing a map etc.

The physical strength will sometimes decrease.,due to sleep problems, low appetite, and energy level.Sometimes the individual may have multiple chronic health conditions. treatment for one illness may influence the management of other underlying health conditions.eg- Osteoporosis, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases.

cognitive changes which are are associated with mental processes such as sensation and perception,memory,intelligence,language,thought,problem solving ,occur among aging people.So while performing tasks they make take more time to encode ,store,and retreive information at the time of need.The rate of learning new information can also be slower in old people.This may not affect their daily occupational and social functioning, but they may feel difficulty in performing choice and complex reaction time tasks . Driving an heavy vehicle. or playing cricet. Even some will feel it difficult to manage .driving a car safely.

For an optimal living for the old people Geriatric counselling can be given helping them to restoration of positive self concept, dealing with thier losses of relatives and friends, dealing with aging,dependent etc..They also need a safety ,place to live.Paliative care is also needed.

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