Premature cognitive commitments are like photographs in which meaning rather than motion is frozen. When a child hears about stiff, testy old people, the snapshot is processed as is. The child has little stake in the issue. Later, in old age, the grown-up child may not question the image. The original picture can become the foundation for everything learned about old age. Even when corrected, so much else has been built on this foundation that a new attitude is difficult to form.