How does aging effect memory functions and intelligence in the later stages of life?

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Descriptors/Key Words

Memory decay
Memory Training
Mental Age
Physiological Aging
Aged(attitudes towards)

Long Term Memory
Intelligence
Long Term Potentiation
Self Care Skills
Aging in Place

Wisdom
Cognitive Processes
Learning
Aging
Brain

Elderly

Definition/Key Terms

The following definitions are obtained from American Psychological Association. (2008) Dictionary of Psychology.

Aging: n.The level of mental, emotional, or educational development of a person, esp. a child, as determined by various tests and based on a comparison of the individual's score with the average score for persons of the same chronological age.Ageism is defined as the Prejudice against older people, similar to racism and sexism in its negative stereotypes.
Memory: Memory The mental capacity to encode, store, and retrieve information.
Intelligence: The global capacity to profit from experience and to go beyond given information about the environment.Intelligence quotient (IQ)An index derived from standardized tests of intelligence; originally obtained by dividing an individual's mental age by chronological age and then multiplying by 100; now directly computed as an IQ test score.
Mnemonics: Strategies or devices that use familiar information during the encoding of new information to enhance subsequent access to the information in memory.
Gerontology: A medical specialty that focuses on the care and treatment of the elderly.The large number of aging “baby boomers” has increased both the profile and importance of this specialty
Hippocampus: The part of the limbic system that is involved in the acquisition of explicit memory.
fMRI: A brain imaging technique that combines benefits of both MRI and PET scans by detecting magnetic changes in the flow of blood to cells in the brain.
Dementia: The loss of mental functioning, including memory loss that is severe enough to interfere with daily functioning. Of dementia subtypes, Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common. However, there are many other causes of dementia.
Lifelong Learning: Is the concept that employees need continually to update their knowledge and skills in order to ensure they are employable in the future. It stems from the view that the pace of change has increased and will continue to do so, particularly through technological developments, economic changes, and globalization, therefore skills must be constantly updated. The concept applies to people both in and out of work: they are encouraged to update existing skills, where appropriate, or to retrain and acquire new skills and knowledge. It particularly stresses the importance of education and learning continuing beyond normal years of schooling, and lasting throughout a person's working life. It also emphasizes that it is the responsibility of the individual to ensure his or her skills are up to date, and to seek opportunities for self-development from a variety of sources provided by the public and private sectors.
Cognitive Load Theory: Is an instructional theory that starts from the idea that human working memory is limited with respect to the amount of information it can hold and the number of operations it can perform on that information. (Van Gerven & et.al., 2003)

Atittudes towards Aging

How does aging effect memory functions and intelligence in the later stages of life? First we must attempt to look at our perceptions of aging and how it effects the development of an individual.

“When do we categorize people as old and elderly?" (Larsson, 2007)

OLDER: also referred to as the third age. This is a new development, and occurs when a person retires and still leads a fulfilling life without being inhibited by illnesses or worrying about the financial situations.
ELDERLY: also referred to as the fourth age. This is when a person begins to struggle to lead a fulfilling life, because they are restricted by their health and cannot perform common everyday tasks. In this stage of life a person requires help and care from others.

According to Peter Laslett, only since the 1950’s did people begin to exist in the “old” stage of their life. Rather than overwork themselves so that there would be nothing left past retirement, social programs like pension plan along with an increase in the life expectancy lead to the increase of the opportunities for people after their retirement. There is no exact age at when the person changes from the old to the elderly. There are many different factors that affect the change such as:

Living alone or cohabiting with a spouse/children: The person shares financial burdens, and if they are sick they have someone to take care of them. Living alone or cohabiting is not always the choice of a person, sometimes their spouse dies and they go through suffering, or the financial situation does not allow the children to move out.
Financial Situation: The person who is strained does not have access to Medicare to take care of themselves, and it has effect on their quality of life. This study also states that there is a correlation between the income and life expectance. The higher the income the longer the life expectancy of an individual.
Technological Improvement: Orthopedic surgeries and Cataract operations have increased the opportunity for people to enjoy their retirement and the older stage of life for a longer duration.
Other reasons for the difference between the old and the elderly are marital status, gender, country of birth compared to the country of living and education.

This also brings up important point regarding life expectancy, and asks two questions, Do people live more years of good life? or more years of suffering? and the answer will depend on the above stated points. We must not overlook the view of media on what we perceive the elderly population as, because they only show exceptions of the elderly population, either the really active person who leads a fulfilling life or the fact that many see the elderly as people who are all senile individuals. this is a case of “reverse ageism”, and this is what the studies should try to avoid.(Larsson, 2007)

This is an important concept to use as a starting point for the discussion on the topic of aging, memory and intelligence. The views of the elderly have been changing, and more studies are done to find the results/effects of aging and to understand the biological changes in our life when it comes in relationship to the memory functions and intelligence. The study of the phenomena of aging is a more current topic of study in the psychology because of the increase in the elderly population or the “baby boomers”.

The social situation of older people.

This article looked at the social perspective of aging. What difficulties do the old and the elderly have to deal with when they age was the main question for this article. There’s a distinction made between the terms of Old and Elderly, where old is used to describe a person who still leads a full life, and elderly is a person who requires a significant amount of aid to function and perform everyday routines. The article states that aging, and the difference between the Old and the Elderly is related to more than just one factor. The factors responsible for the difference are education, marital status, gender, technological announcements, financial situation and country of birth compared to the country of living. The article focuses on the social aspects of aging and foregoes stating any biological reasons for the transition from old to elderly. This is important because it allows us to understand the difference between different stages of aging. It also gives psychology the first step into studying the individual factors of aging and how they affect the development of a person, as well as a reason to look for the biological explanations to the difference between old and elderly.

Larsson, K. (2007). The social situation of older people. International journal of social welfare, 16, 203-218.

Attitudes of Functionally Independent Residents toward Residents Who Were Disabled in Old Age Homes: The Role of Separation versus Integration.

This article mainly points out the difference in attitudes towards seniors. The senior participants in this study were placed in two different settings. The first group was placed in the home for the aged and the second group was placed in a normal residential home. A minimum of 70 random individuals were interviewed from both the groups. The researchers found that the second group had many complaints against the residents; were as the first group of seniors had only a few problems or complaints. this articles main emphasis is on the assimilation of the aging population in today’s society where everything is so technology – orientated that if an individual does not own or know about a certain thing that person is seen as an outcast. Thus the problem of generation gap. Hence the difference in attitude towards the aging population.

Iecovich, E., Lev-Ran, O., (2006). Attitudes of functionally independent residents toward residents who were disabled in old age homes: the role of separation versus integration. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 25, 252-268.

Effects of Aging

Difference between the average brain and Alzheimer's patient

When aging occurs an individual undergoes not only a physical change but also a psychological, such as memory loss (Persson & et.al., 2005) and decline in cognitive functions (Paas & et.al., 2001). Studies on learning and the use of verbal skills have shown that memory effects the information and intelligence in the older population. Some of those studies also say that even if the older population underperforms on the tests, their experiences make up for the underperformance of short-term memory recollection. In the Long-Term memory tests there are variations between the younger and older groups, where sixty-one to seventy-five year old subjects remembered twenty-five percent more words than the average scores of the younger group (Davis & et.al., 2003).

Memory Loss

Memory Loss Symptoms

Memory loss is a change of a person's mental state, that ultimately occurs when one ages, and at times memory loss also happens when an individual suffers from an illness, such as dementia, Alzheimer’s or depression. These illnesses affect the brain functions, more prevalent in the elderly population and might cause memory loss, which consequently inhibits a person’s intelligence.
Fifty years of memory of college grades: Accuracy and distortions.

In this article the accurateness and misrepresentation of memory is what is being focused on. Bahrick, Hall, Da Costa all work closely together to understand in depth the self-generated distortion of memory, the topic that has been neglected. ( Bahrick, Hall, Da Costa, 2008). Many investigations have been done to look at the memory of the people such as Neiser (1981) and his experiment with John Dean and President Nixon. Also Bahrick, Hall, Berger and their study of the memory by examining 3,220 grad students. The methods used was to question the grads of previous content and the subjects they have taken in college. Than they were later asked what their grades were in each of the subjects. The results for this experiment vary however tables are providing to show the results of the alumni that have been tested. For example students with the higher grades remembered their marks however students who had a lower grade in a course could not recall the grade let alone the content. Seventy-two percent were recalled correctly and twenty four were recalled. Eighty-nine percent of As, seventy-two of Bs, and sixty-two of grades of C are correctly remembered. Furthermore failed courses were highly remembered. Therefore smarter students had a longer memory span of their grades but some choose to not remember the lower grades such as D’s and C’s because they were not satisfied with the marks. This article fits in with our projects because it looks at the memory span of the elderly college graduates.

Bahrick, H.P., Hall, L.K., Da Costa, L.A., Fifty years of memory of college grades: accuracy and distortions. Emotion, 8, 13-22.

Patterns of Memory loss in three elderly samples. Patterns of Memory loss in three elderly samples.

The focus of this research was to compare the memory of older adults to the younger adults and compare the amount of knowledge that was retained after certain amounts of time. This research included 4 different age groups aged 67-79, 67 – 83, 64- 88, 18 – 25. The mean age for the older groups was 74.3 and the younger was 19.7. Three different kinds of experimental tasks were carried out such as the Word generation, paired associate recall, free and cued recall. All the three experiments had a couple words that had to be memorized and recalled later. The procedure varied from group to group. The experiments for different groups were conducted at different surroundings such as hospital, laboratory, seniors center etc. the result was that the much younger groups retained more information and was able to recall instantaneously. This article is all about researching the learning ability in the aging population. Different kinds of activities are used for recalling words and contribute information regarding the awareness of memory decay in the aging population.

Craik, F.I.M., Byrd, M., Swanson, J.M., (1987). Patterns of memory loss in three elderly samples. Psychology and Aging, 2, 79-86.

The nature of cognitive complaints in healthy older adults with and without objective memory decline.

The defaults’ regarding memory was assessed in 100 healthy individuals over a period of two and a half years. some of the common defaults that the participants reported were such as forgetting names, forgetting some aspects of chores from the daily routine etc. most of these complaints revolved around anxiety, depression and other mental illness and this is in particular did not have anything to do with the age factor or educational level of attainment. Different kinds of instruments were used for accessing memory decline. The study found that after a series of tests the researchers found that every individual will experience a decline in memory as individual ages. This article is relevant to the effects of aging because it tells everyone how memory impairment occurs and does not have anything to do with age and knowledge.

Weaver, C., Masters, M., (2008).The nature of cognitive complaints in healthy older adults with and without objective memory decline. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 30, 245–257.

FIGURE 1 The transverse sections show the location of the four frontal area’s of the brain. The bars are showing the average percent signal change for participants with a declining and stable memory performance over time. However, the error bars show standard error of the mean.

Structure-Function Correlates of Cognitive Decline in Aging.

The purpose of this experiment was to identify with cognitive decline in aging in exploring neural correlates. By doing so, researchers wanted to identify two groups of older adults that differed in their performance on tests – one being stable or declining over a decade, with respect to their episodic memory.

The results indicated that cognitive decline is associated with differences in the structure as well as the function of the aging brain, and suggests that increased activation is either caused by structural disruption or is a compensatory response to such disruption. With the use of structural and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), distinct set of differences was associated with the elderly persons decline in mental processes. (Refer to Figure 3):

The conclusion made was that certain areas of the brain in the elderly subjects had a great decline in memory-performance. The results obtained through the use of DTI measures indicated that cognitive decline is definitely associated with differences in the form and structure of the brain. Therefore, this experimentation allowed researchers to conclude the possibility that an increased activation can be caused by one of two things:

      1. Structural disruption
      2. Compensatory response to such disruption.

Persson, J., Nyberg, L., Lind, J., Larsson, A., Nilsson, L.G., Ingvar, M. et.al. (2005). Structure-function correlates of cognitive decline in aging. Cerebral Cortex, 16, 907-915.

Depression

Patterns of subjective memory impairment in the elderly : association with memory performance.

GRAPH 3. This graph shows a questionnaire with a relationship between memory and depression. Cluster 1: No Memory complaints, little/no depression. Cluster 2: Some Memory complaints, some depression. Cluster 3: Significant amount of memory complaints, large amounts of depression.

This study attempts to the effect of Subjective Memory Impairment(SMI) on cognitive performance. The study used 2389 participants ages 75 and over. The results of this study divided the participants into three different groups (see Graph 3). Cluster 1 being the group that reported no memory problems. Cluster 2 who reported some memory concern but no effect on their everyday life. Cluster 3 reported large memory concerns with it having a significant effect on everyday life. The major distinguishing factor between the groups was the level of depression. There was a relationship with the level of depressive symptoms and memory complaints. Cluster 1 having little to no depression symptoms, Cluster 2 having some depression symptoms and Cluster 3 having a considerable amount of depressive symptoms. This study had a large amount of participants, and was done with only questionnaires, when one reads through the study they must be careful to consider that the results are of people who filled in the questionnaire themselves, and thus the results could be questionable. The importance of this study was to show that depression had a large impact on the memory functions of the individual. With the increase of level of depression there was a decrease in memory functions.

Jessen, F., Wiese, B., Cvetanovksa, G., Fuchs, A., Kaduskiewics, H., Luck, T., Pentzek, M., et.al. (2007). Patterns of subjective memory impairment in the elderly : association with memory performance. Psychological Medicine, 37. 1753-1762.

TABLE 2

Depression in old age (75+), the PIKO study.

Depression is evident in the elderly but the risk factor is unclear to the community. A study has been done with in the community to further the peoples understand of depression and the elderly. The method that has been used was for people to do a health survey. This data was collected from 2003 to 2006. The results showed that depression symptoms have a huge risk factor especially on the elderly. There are many risk factors that cause depression in the elderly, and some being the fact that they don’t have the power they used have with their lives, they can’t make money themselves and some can’t even choose what they eat anymore. And loosing the authority can cause depression. However table 2 looks at the depression rate in gender. Leaving alone all the other risk factors. The table shows that female elderly are most likely to develop depression or already are suffering from the disorder. This study fits in with our project because it looks at the depression factors of the elderly.

Kostense, P.J., van Oppen, P., van Hout, H.P.J., Stalman, W.A.B., Rijmen, Frank., (2008). Depression in old age (75+), the PIKO study. Journal of Affective Disorders, 106, 295-299.

Dementia

Memory enhancement training for older adults with mild cognitive impairment: preliminary study

The purpose of this experiment was to perform memory enhancement trainings for older adults with mild cognitive impairment; which is a major decline in memory operation and not other cognitive functions. With tests that were on cognitive and behavioral treatment in improving memory functioning and the older adults attitudes about their memory.

In this manner, researchers wanted to evaluate a treatment group, who were given an education on the subject of memory loss, memory skills training, relaxation training, and memory related beliefs of cognitive restructuring; in comparison to the non-treated group. The results that those who participated in the intervention, outperformed and rated their ability more favorable than those in controlled condition. This training had produced a stronger prospect for future enhancement and lower prospect for cognitive decline. The conclusion made, demonstrates that the psychological component aiming participants belief on their memory and ability to control was successful; and also that memory performance has many influences such as the participants’ attitude, motivation and sense of control in memory performance. Therefore, this experimentation allowed researchers to conclude that to achieve and maintain performance improvements the older adults with cognitive impairment possibly will need more skills training.

Rapp, S.R., Brenes, G., Marsh, A.P.,(2002). Memory enhancement training for older adults with mild cognitive impairment: A preliminary study. Aging & Mental Health, 6, 5-11.

Declining of memory functions of normal elderly persons.

The purpose of this experiment was to identify with the emergence of dementia administered upon three subjects: the normal elderly, normal young adults, and schizophrenic patients. The significance of the study was to incorporate a second feature in order to detect dementia – not only verbal items but visual special ones through the use of Yokota’s Memory Test (YMT). The experiment incorporated two distinct tests. The first identified factors, which pertained to short-term/working memory in addition to two factors in relation to long-term memory. The second study compared the YMT in relation to the revised version of one of the most popular intelligence scales in Japan – HDS-R. Three factor-analysis emerged: 1) verbal memory 2) spatial memory and 3) digit span. Consequently, this proved to show a visible distinction between that of the normal elderly subjects from the young adults and schizophrenic patients. That is, a deficit of ability in digit span fact emerged out of the normal elderly subjects.

The results of this experimentation led researchers to notice that the normal elderly persons decline in memory function with the experimentation of two studies did decline. Table 1 below indicates that the results suggested that YMT most definitely reflected memory functions declining with aging. There is a drastic decline with aging (except for arithmetic and general knowledge) within the age groups between 50-60 years of age.

This experimentation concluded that with the completion of study one, the two short-term/working memories were verbal memory and span; and the two long-term memories were that of orientation/knowledge and ordinary objects. With such findings, the first proved to be more affected than the second with aging. The second study proved to conclude that memory functions declined with progressive risks of dementia, hence a decreasing score of the HDS-R testing.

This table shows testing item and the age groups of the participants. This is the result of the Yokota Memory Test, which shows a decline in memory functions in relation to age.

Yokota, M., Miyanaga, K., Yonemura, K., Watanabe, H., Nagashima, K., Naito, K., et.al. (2000). Declining of memory functions of normal elderly persons. Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 54, 217-225.

Intelligence

Compensation

Compensation of skills occurs in the elderly persons. What elderly are lacking in physical abilities (i.e. eye sight, speed of movement, etc) they compensate it by using higher order skills and by using the superior memory storage of the experiences they received throughout their life. (Stuart-Hamilton & Rabbit, 1997)

Aging causes a decline in complex skills more than the simple ones. The eye-voice test study believes that due to compensation the older people make up for their skill deficits by using their higher order skills. This occurs in different tasks such as (Stuart-Hamilton & Rabbit, 1997):

Chess: Even with a decline in memory they have a large knowledge of chess moves in their repertoire.
Typing: Even if there is a difference in hand speed movement between the young and the old. There is no difference in typing speed because the older person compensates for slow hand movement by planning their key strokes ahead of time.

Cognitive Load Theory

Cognitive Load Theory is an instructional theory that starts from the idea that human working memory is limited with respect to the amount of information it can hold and the number of operations it can perform on that information. (Van Gerven & et.al., 2003). Therefore working memory must be limited only to what is important to the task, and try to reduce outside influences that inhibit and clutter up the mind during the learning process. This is an important development to understand learning in the elderly, since the cognitive ability is lowered as a person ages (Paas & et.al., 2001), in order to learn efficiently there were many different approaches to lower the demand on cognitive load. Approaches that reduce the load on cognitive memory during learning/solving unfamiliar problems are (Van Gerven &et.al., 2003) (Paas & et.al., 2001) :

Means-Ends Analysis - This approach is used to break down one problem into many small sub-problems. Then work at one sub-problem at a time to come to a desired solution.
Goal Free Problems - In order to solve a problem no goal is set except for the request to find a solution. In such approach the person is asked to use forward thinking and use all skills to achieve a solution, rather than work in a specific environment and using a specific set of variables. This allows for more ways to come to a conclusion.
Worked Examples - Approaching a solution by trying to solve only one problem, and keeping everything else out of mind, this also involves using specific means, such as images and accompanying texts.
Modality Effect - Modality Effect is a way of learning, where visual and auditory aid is used along with modern technology to lower the cognitive load. By reducing cognitive load through different perceptual abilities it is easier to learn and recall information.

Instructional Compensation for Age-Related Cognitive Declines: Effects of Goal Specificity in Maze Learning.

The purpose of this journal is to test the Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) through means-ends analysis. This was done by putting the participants, young adults and old participants, through a goal oriented maze and a goal-free oriented maze. The article links Working Memory as the main explanation for the decline of cognitive abilities in aging, leading to slower problem resolution in difficult cognitive problems. Two hypotheses were created after looking at CLT and cognitive aging together. One, goal specific problem will cause more concern for older participants then young adults. Two, there will be a smaller difference in performance in a goal-free task between the age groups. The results of the study confirmed the hypotheses, thus proving that by reducing the cognitive load and using goal-free tasks to reach the desired result there is less difference in the age groups. There was most improvement in the elderly participants. Study was well organized with enough information to explain all the major topics of the research. The importance of this study is to provide people with a more efficient way to reach their full potential and provide the elderly ways to keep improving themselves and supporting the “lifelong learning” concept.

Paas, F., Camp, G., Rikers, R., (2001). Instructional compensation for age-related cognitive declines: effects of goal specificity in maze learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93, 181-186.

Acquisition, recall, and forgetting of verbal information in long-term memory by young, middle-aged and elderly individual.

This study attempts to find the period of when a person begins to struggle with verbal information processing. This study gathered participants from different parts of U.S.A. ranging from thirty to ninety years old in order to receive a substantial amount of variations in the tests. The result of the study showed the younger participants learning quicker than the older participants. The results for recalling after twenty-four hours showed the older participants having more difficulty recalling then the younger subjects. However, when the test was performed at a longer interval there were no significant age differences in recollection of information. There was also a positive relationship between the societal factors (i.e. health, education, etc.) and the test scores. The article presents a lot of different tests, graphs and explanations to support their point of view, at times the overload of information is difficult to follow. This article is important in providing us with the understanding of when forgetting begins.

Davis, H., Small, S., Stern, Y., Mayeux, R., Feldstein, S. & Keller, F. (2003). Acquisition, recall, and forgetting of verbal information in long-term memory by young, middle-aged and elderly individual. Cortex, 39, 1063-1091.

Fluid Intelligence

Fluid vs Crystallized intelligence

The decline of eye-voice span in elderly readers.

This journal focused on the eye-voice span (EVS) in the elderly and hypothesizes that the older people make up for skill decline by being able to use their large reserve of knowledge, skills and memory collected throughout their life. The EVS tests the efficiency of text processing in a person, in this case divided into groups of fifty year olds, sixty year olds and seventy plus year olds. The study predicts two results. One, since active processing degenerates with age, the measure of EVS will be lower in the older then the younger subjects. Two, the older participants will make up for their degeneration of active processing by using their higher order knowledge. The result of the study showed that even if lower number of words were read by the older subjects, there was no change in the performance of sentence reconstruction and reading. This result is said to be caused by the degeneration of fluid intelligence. This study concludes by stating that many different aspects of intelligence are affected by aging. The decline of general intelligence is attributed to small declines of many different skills. This article is well written and provides many reasons for why there is a decline of fluid intelligence, with explaining each reason and how it affects aging. This article is important because it addresses the topic of compensation for the older people and shows that the older subjects performed just as well on the tests as their younger counterparts.

Stuart-Hamilton, I., and Rabbitt, P. (1997) The decline of eye-voice span in elderly readers, Educational Gerontology, 23, 389 -400.

Physical effects of aging.

Neural Correlates of movement preparation in healthy ageing.

Not much is known about non-clinical ageing of motor control system and the neural connect. So this article and study take a closer look at how age effects on advance movement preparation in motor behavior. Thru experiments and study they found out not only movement ending that change with age but also motor cognition.

Two groups volunteers were tested, 10 older people from the ages 68–83 years and 10 younger people from the ages 21–25 years. The experiment consisted of three major stimuli and two responses cue were to be followed, the trials was presented in blocks of five and ten. The experiment was separated in two. The training and main experimental session. During training, the people were being prepared for the experiment procedure.

The experiment showed that the anticipation stimulus for the elderly was as not active as the younger participant’s motor cognition. This article is important to our project because it looked at how quickly an elder’s brain functions compared to the younger generations. For example how active the motor control is with in the elderly generation.

Sterr, A., Dean, P., (2008). Neural correlates of movement preparation in healthy ageing. European Journal of Neuroscience, 27, 254-260.

Memory Enhancements

Improving Memory knowledge, Satisfaction and Functioning via an Education and Intervention Program for Older Adults.

This program was mainly focused on education and memory intervention. The purpose of this experiment was to see how memory intervention programs can assist in decreasing the occurrence of everyday memory struggle and see how this has a great impact in how an older person’s general satisfaction with life and their ability to function independently improves. By doing so, researchers wanted to understand how older adults can improve in their memory performance in learning new mnemonic (Relating to, assisting or intended to assist the memory) and behavioral memory strategies. Like Memory and aging program which is a continuing memory education and intervention curriculum along with Telephone Interview for Cognitive status which consisted in remembering a list of words following a distraction intervals of 30s. There was a controlled and treatment group. The results indicated that; there was a large change in the scores which showed an increase in general knowledge pertaining to memory and aging and an increase of 26% in scores between the pretest and posttest; attained by program than control participants. The conclusion made was that certain self-reported memory performance enhanced accordingly to the intervention and the participants felt that throughout the course of the program; their daily memory functioning improved. Therefore, this experimentation allowed researchers to conclude that even the slightest knowledge on aging can help and assist the elderly with memory improvement and better quality of life. Sometimes all the elderly need is to feel like they can be apart of their aging process and be educated on what to expect and how to improve it.

Troyer, A.K., (2001). Improving memory knowledge, satisfaction, and functioning via an education and intervention program for older adults. Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition, 8, 256-268.

Intelligence Enhancement

Education, Poetry, and the Process of Growing Old.

PEP is a project by in Bergen by the name of ‘Prosjekt eldrepedagogikk’, arguing that learning should be redefined and included in the concept of care for the elderly persons. PEP aims to incorporate the elderly within societies educational projects through the writing of poetry and the telling of stories in groups. Such a project does not want to present the elderly as any kind of “special” being, needing “special” education. Rather, PEP’s view towards the elderly person’s education is a more democratic perspective, with its focus on the concept of lifelong learning. As Vygotsky had once stated, the centrality in the learning process and interdependence within the human thought is language, however storytelling and writing can too be crucial aspects of an elderly person’s educational program.

The purpose of this project was to incorporate various elderly groups to an extensive creative writing and storytelling course. The elderly were able to have an audience in order to share their readings, and that became important in the learning process and with the glance of others, they came into being. This view is in correspondence with that of the classical theory of the “looking glass self” notion developed by the social interactionists C.H Cooley and G.H Mead. Ultimately, the elderly persons were able to enhance their verbal creativity skills with the emergence of using their language and incorporating it to human thought.

Aadlanksvik, R. (2007). Education, poetry, and the process of growing old. Educational Gerontology, 33, 665-678.

Cognitive rehabilitation in the elderly: Effects on memory.

Purpose of this experiment was to see the effects of memory performance through a 12 week multi modal cognitive rehabilitation training program in two groups of older adults who were directed on how to enhance their memory performance using internal and external strategies. The aim was designing a rehabilitation program suitable for older adults made to improve memory performance. By doing so, researchers wanted to compare the two groups with different measurements to see the standard deviation of each result to the other scores. The conclusion made was that such trainings has its promising for the rehabilitation of memory functioning in older adults and it can improve encoding and retrieval processes leading to better memory functioning over an extended period of time. The results obtained through the assessment of the different tests shows that the working memory showed no effects or little effect of the training; however the ETG in comparison to the LTG showed a positive response to the training in the domains of psychological, also it’s more consistent and has long-lasting benefits. Therefore, this experimentation allowed researchers to conclude how memory loss can seriously affect a person’s quality of life and that there are few programs designed specifically for the elderly. However with training, it shows to improve controlled recollection.

Craik, F.I.M., Winocur, G,. Palmer, H,. Binns, M.A., Edwards, M., Bridges, K., et.al (2007) Cognitive rehabilitation in the elderly: effects on memory. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 13, 132-142.

Social Programs for the Elderly

Remembering to age successfully: evaluation of a successful aging approach to memory enhancement.

The purpose of this experiment was designed to enhance both subjective and objective memory within the healthy community-dwelling elderly. Subjectively, this would be done through self-report measures of meta-memory. Whereas, objectively testing would be performed through the use of memory tests. This led researchers to believe that a new memory enhancement program could rise, and therefore lead to a better incorporation of principles to successful aging. The study involved the elderly persons aged between 56-84 years of age to participate in one of the two programs offered:

The Optimizing Memory Program
Use It or Lose It Program

The first focused its attention towards training and educational aspects of memory. The second led more as an active control condition, designed to control for both cognitive and social stimulation. Consequently, various testing methods were conducted, and it showed the greatest amount of improvement in tasks such as: verbal paired associates task, story recall, contentment with memory etc. The experimentation resulted in participants finding themselves improving significantly on both the subjective and objective measures – not necessarily just one or the other. This was evident with its use of MANOVA – a planned multivariate analysis of variances. Researchers found that their experimental findings suggested more towards the view that healthy elderly people may be perceived through knowledge, therefore perceptual as apposed to the subjects, actual memory loss. They concluded that this too, can be substantially remediated.

Overall, the findings of such a study and approach to experimentation are promising. Researchers were able to bring forth suggestions towards the elderly having the ‘plasticity’ to improve both their actual memory performances and the strategies they can use which were evident through brief memory and education and training within the two programs being offered. If the continuation of memory improvement perceives as a way to successful aging, the elderly may be willing to then practice such new strategies and techniques, and therefore become more content with their memory performance in the upcoming future.

Hohaus, L. (2006). Remembering to age successfully: evaluation of a successful aging approach to memory enhancement. International Psychogeriatrics, 19, 137-150.

The efficiency of multimedia learning into old age.

The purpose of this study is to see whether by using modern technology the older population can reduce the amount of redundant information and increase their memory efficiency. This will test the Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) and how the use of multimedia affects the elderly. This will test the modality effect. By lowering the demand on CLT this article is trying to promote “lifelong learning” approach to learning. The authors provide us with several ways to improve our learning process by getting rid of redundant information through such methods as means-ends analysis, goal-free problems and worked examples. The study found that the participants improved their learning process with the help of multimedia. The elderly benefited the most from the use of technology because of a significant reduction on the cognitive load. This study gave an excellent overview of different techniques of learning and modern theories associated with learning by reducing the cognitive load. This is important to psychology because this could lead to a development of multimedia as a major source of learning, not only for the elderly but also in school and other educational practices.

Van Gerven, P., Paas, F., Van Merrienboer, J,. Hendriks, M. & Schmidt, H.G. (2003). The efficiency of multimedia learning into old age. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 73, 489-505.

Computer use among older adults in a naturally occurring retirement community

Purpose of this experiment was to understand if the use of computers and internet can offer an opportunity to enhance older adults’ lives, since the use of the computers is low in comparison to other age groups. This study investigated patterns of computer use and barriers among 324 residents living in naturally occurring retirement community. By doing so, researchers wanted to examine the ways people use a computer; and how this affects the quality of life for older adults. The results indicated that residents that were frequent computer users were more likely to be younger; they had greater social resources, and gained more education and less functional impairment. The conclusion made demonstrates the different perceptions of older adults in regards to technology and the preference to use or not use computers. As a result there were barriers which included cost; ergonomic obstacle, complexity, and a lack of interest. Even if cost was a factor, just to educate them of low-cost computers. The results obtained through several dimensions of scaling analysis, suggests that, common computer users fell along both a solitary-social dimension and an obligatory-discretionary dimension. The older adults that use computers have an extensive social network, are more satisfied with their social circumstances; with more access to assistance. Therefore, this experimentation allowed researchers to conclude that the use of computers may nurture social connections among older adults. And those who were users have maintained different relationships for keeping in contact with friends; which shows the importance of education. Also that computer plays a role in everyone’s life and in order to improve the lives of the older adults researchers are looking to focus on key points of developing services and programs that come forward from the older adult’s concerns, capabilities and wishes.

Carpenter, B.D., Buday, S. (2007). Computer use among older adults in a naturally occurring retirement community. Computers in Human Behavior, 23, 3012-3024.

APA References

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How does aging effect memory functions and intelligence in the later stages of life?

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