Memory and Aging: Information Processing

Memory and Aging

• Recollecting faces, names, events, and experiences is critical to personhood.
• Aging is associated with a gradual decline in memory, leading to challenges in recalling names and events.
• Older adults may experience frustration and embarrassment due to memory lapses, such as forgetting appointments or basic information.
• Memory is broadly divided into short-term memory, holding information for up to 30 seconds, and long-term memory, which retains information beyond 30 seconds.

Information Processing and Memory

• Environmental stimuli are initially processed in short-term memory (up to 30 seconds) before potentially transferring to long-term memory (beyond 30 seconds).
• Short-term memory has limited capacity; new information can replace older information.
• Short-term memory consists of primary memory, which keeps and retrieves information in its original format, and working memory, which stores, processes, and manipulates information.
• Younger and older adults exhibit similar primary memory capabilities.
• Working memory is responsible for storing, processing and manipulating information.
• Working memory consists of phonological loop, visuospatial loop.
• Older age is associated with reduced working memory.
• Long-term memory, sometimes referred to as remote memory, possesses unlimited holding capacity and can retain information for extended periods, even a lifetime.
• Information acquired between ages 10 and 30 is more likely to be retained for life, coinciding with peak cognitive development and social life.
• Humans are typically unaware of information stored in long-term memory but can retrieve it when needed.
• Long-term memory is categorized into prospective, storing information about future activities, and past, storing information about past events.
• Past long-term memory includes procedural memory, semantic memory, and episodic memory

Challenges in Memory with Age

• Older adults may experience slowed procedural memory when referring to skills over a lifetime.
• Older adults may experience slower semantic memory when referring to general knowledge.
• There is an age decline in episodic memory, storing info about past events or experiences tied to particular times and places.
• Difficulties with episodic memory manifest in daily life through forgetting common things.
• More severe loss of episodic memory can lead to a loss of independent living, which is associated with dementia.
• Younger adults typically have better episodic memory due to the encoding process.
• Older people encode by rote younger people by elaboration.
• Production deficiency means older adults suffer from a reduced ability to retrieve information spontaneously.
• Slowed retrieval process means older adults have a reduced ability to recall information from their long term memory store.
• Older adults are more likely to rate their memory as failing and report forgetfulness.
• Memory complaints can stem from other aging issues.
• Memory loss shows an age gradient, with the young-old having better memory than the oldest-old.
• Older women tend to have better information retention ability than older men when referring to episodic memory.
• Educated older adults tend to perform better in memory tests than uneducated older adults while physically active older adults score better in memory tests than inactive individuals.
• Physical health problems are associated with poor memory performance.

Memory and Intellectual Training

• It is believed that the mind can be trained using mnemonic techniques, both external (calendars, reminders) and internal (mental images).
• Taught in memory training classes
• People are taught mental images to help remember
• Involves lots of cognitive resources
• Intellectual functioning (or intelligence) includes learning, reasoning, abstract thinking, and problem-solving.
• Intelligence is variously classified using the Styernberg's 1985 typology, including contextual intelligence, experiential and information processing.
• Fluid intelligence is biological and declines with age, while crystallized intelligence is based on education and experience.
• Psychometric tests assess intellectual abilities in older adults, including arithmetic reasoning, ability to follow directions, and problem-solving skills.

Intelligence and Aging

• Contrary to earlier cross-sectional studies, longitudinal research suggests different intellectual trajectories based on cultural and gender differences.
• Non-Western cultures attribute intelligence to old age, while women may decline earlier on fluid intelligence, and men on crystallized intelligence.
• Intellectual development is ongoing, with gains and losses throughout life.
• Fluid intellectual abilities show varying patterns: gains outweigh losses in early life, gains equal losses in middle age, and losses outweigh gains in old age.
• Rules of legal guardianship reflect beliefs about declining intellectual competence.
• Intellectual function is associated with the absence of sensory deficits and chronic diseases, higher socioeconomic status, intimate social relationships, satisfaction with life, and an active, stimulating lifestyle.
• Interventions to improve intellectual functioning capitalize on brain plasticity and include challenging activities like reading, games, and social engagements.
• Cognitive training programs show improvements in older adults through increased test scores.

Explore the impact of aging on memory, including challenges in recalling information. Understand the difference between short-term and long-term memory. Learn how environmental stimuli are processed and stored, with a focus on primary and working memory.