Memory Performance and Aging

PS277 – Lecture 7

Memory and the Self

Memory as critical to defining who we are, giving us a sense of continuity through time

Alzheimer’s as such a powerful, frightening example of problems in this – losing sense of self, ability to recognize others, etc. – “Still Alice”

Clinical cases of people who have lost memory function…HM had his hippocampus removed, failed to transfer info into LTM and could not retain any new information

Outline

Types of Memory and Aging

Factors Influencing Memory Performance and Aging

Memory Training

Types of Memory - Outline

Working and short-term memory

Long-term memory

Autobiographical memory

Implicit memory

Prospective memory

Denise Park’s (2006) Summary on Aging and Working Memory

Park’s (2002) Adult Lifespan Memory Performance Model

Long-Term Memory

Semantic Memory – memory for general information (e.g., words and concepts, etc.) – capital of France = ?

Episodic Memory – memory for information from a specific event or moment in time – looking over Paris at night on visit

Implicit Memory – non-explicit, effortless, non-conscious memory that shows some effects of earlier exposure (“savings” – e.g., riding a bike)

Autobiographical Memory – A Key Type of Personal Memory Memories of 9/11?

Information and events from own life, recalled from own specific point of view

Helps to anchor sense of self, continuity over time

Involves both episodic and semantic properties (memories for specific events vs. general knowledge like faces, names, dates, etc.)

Generally semantic memories not as much affected by age as episodic – why?

Autobiographical Memory - The Far Side Version

Personal Autobiographical Memories – Piolino et al. (2002)

Recall of general information from a time period: names of people, an important date, a specific address

Recall of episodic memory from a period: first meeting with spouse, a day during a holiday trip

Participants: 40s, 50s, 60s ,70s

General patterns shown included “memory bump,” “childhood amnesia” for all age groups

Memory Bump and Childhood Amnesia in Autobiographical Recall - Conway

Piolino et al. Results

Semantic memories: Older adults did equivalently with young on information recall

Episodic memories: More contextual detail in event memory, this is poorer for older folks.

Implicit Memory

Procedural Memories: e.g., riding a bike

Clinical Evidence: Severe amnesia for explicit memories (Brenda Milner’s case H.M. – had hippocampus removed, could not recognize nurse who kept coming in to take care of him), but still can “remember” things unconsciously –e.g., could still find his way to old home if you put him back in his old neighborhood, etc.

Automatic Priming and Aging Patterns: very limited evidence of declines with age

Prospective Memory (Jacoby et al.) Remembering future intentions (paying bills, taking

medications, etc.) … remembering to remember

Must also monitor whether you have previously done these intended tasks in everyday life (locked the car doors?) – an example of source monitoring (where does “memory” come from - action vs. imagination)

Older adults generally more likely to feel that they might not have done tasks than younger adults, so criterion was different, but overall they made more errors of commission, younger made more errors of omission

Overall, prospective memory is not too much related to age, however

Factors in Memory Performance in Older Adults

Use of Strategies

Metamemory

Memory Stereotypes about Aging

Expertise

Memory Strategies in Older Adults Strategies are deliberate activities designed to

improve memory (e.g., tie string around finger)

Older adults don’t spontaneously use these as much as younger adults (like kids and production deficit)

Book gives example of TOT states, which are more common in older adults, who may not do as much to search for items as young…on other hand, older adults know these items will eventually surface spontaneously

Using strategies helps remembering, but doesn’t fully account for age differences in recall (Herzog et al., 1998)

Older adults may not execute strategies as well, either

Metamemory and Aging

Knowledge about how memory works, general theories, expectancies about aging and memory as example

Older adults do a bit less well on knowledge of memory system, knowledge of strategies, when to use them, etc. But some phenomena like TOT states might be understood better

Memory self-efficacy as a type of metamemory: expect memory to decline with age, so feel less control and effectiveness

Somewhat, but only modestly, predictive of actual memory performance problems – and what causes what?

Memory Stereotypes and Performance – Cultural Differences (Levy & Langer, 1994) Younger and older Chinese and American

samples (ages 22 vs. 70)

Assessed immediate and longer term memory for pictures matched with activities, visual dot displays, etc.

Measured stereotypes about aging with Palmore’s FAQ and “list adjectives” task: first 5 words that come to mind when think of old person?

Results: Culture Differences in Positivity of Stereotypes of Aging

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Chinese

Culture Differences in Memory Performance by Age Group

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Young Old

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Relations Between Positive Aging Views and Memory Performance

Young adults: very little relation between positive views of aging and memory performance

Older adults: consistent positive relation between positive views of aging actual memory performance

Story Vignette (Erber, 1990)

“Mrs. X, age ___, found that she was behind schedule in running her errands at the local shopping center. She had promised to drop something off at the home of an acquaintance, and decided to call her to let her know she would be late. She located a pay telephone and looked up the number in the phone book, which was hanging on a metal ring. She dropped the coin into the slot. After she dialed the first 3 numbers, however, she could not remember the rest. She had to hang up the phone and lift up the telephone book so that she could look up the number again.”

Causes? Sign of Mental Problems? Need for Training? Predictions for Age of Target, Age of Rater?

Judging Everyday Memory Failures (Erber et al., 1990) Young (age 24) and older (age 71) adults read 8 stories

about a forgetting problem

Half in each group were instructed that the adult woman in the story was young, half that she was older

Memory problems: absentmindedness, forgetting someone’s name, forgetting to buy something at grocery store, failing to recognize someone you know in a new context, etc.

Rated: causes of memory problem, sign of mental difficulty, need for training, should be referred for assessment

Erber et al. Results for Age of Target

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other pro mentaldiff

memtrain

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Expertise and Aging

More experience you have in a domain, the better you will do in recall (chess example of Chi’s research on kids)

Largely the result of reorganizing the knowledge base and chunking of information that allows more storage

Both young and older pilots showed these effects quite clearly in some studies on age differences in memory for aviation texts, but age differences between young and old remained after these expertise effects were controlled …(Morrow et al. study)

Chi’s Research on Chess Expertise and Recall in Kids