Memory and Aging - Theories About Memory and Aging

Theories About Memory and Aging

First, the tests and data that show that as people age, the contiguity effect weakens. This is supported by the associative deficit theory of memory, which asserts old people's poor memory performance is attributed to their difficulty in creating and retaining cohesive episodes. The supporting research in this test, after controlling for sex, education, and other health-related issues, show that greater age was associated with lower hit and greater false alarm rates, and also a more liberal bias response on recognition tests. Second, the higher tendency for older people to make outside intrusions during a memory test can be attributed to the inhibition effect. Inhibition caused participants to take longer time in recalling or recognizing an item, and also subjected the participants to make more frequent errors. For instance, in a study using metaphors as the test subject, older participants rejected correct metaphors more often than literally false statements.

Working memory, which as previously stated is a memory system that stores and manipulates information as we complete cognitive tasks, demonstrates great declines during the aging process. There have been various theories offered to explain why these changes may occur,which include fewer attentional resources, slower speed of processing, less capacity to hold information, and lack of inhibitory control. All of these theories offer strong arguments,and it is likely that the decline in working memory is due to the problems cited in all of these areas.

Some theorists argue that the capacity of working memory decreases as we age, and we are able to hold less information. In this theory, declines in working memory are described as the result of limiting the amount of information an individual can simultaneously keep active, so that a higher degree of integration and manipulation of information is not possible because the products of earlier memory processing are forgotten before the subsequent products.

Another theory that is being examined to explain age related declines in working memory is that there is a limit in attentional resources seen as we age. This means that older individuals are less capable of dividing their attention between two tasks, and thus tasks with higher attentional demands are more difficult to complete due to a reduction in mental energy. Tasks that are simple and more automatic, however, see fewer declines as we age. Working memory tasks often involve divided attention, thus they are more likely to stain the limited resources of aging individuals.

Speed of processing is another theory that has been raised to explain working memory deficits. As a result of various studies he has completed examining this topic, Salthouse argues that as we age our speed of processing information decreases significantly. It is this decrease in processing speed that is then responsible for our inability to use working memory efficiently as we age. The younger persons brain is able to obtain and process information at a quicker rate which allows for subsequent integration and manipulation needed to complete the cognitive task at hand. As this processing slows, cognitive tasks that rely on quick processing speed then become more difficult.

Finally,the theory of inhibitory control has been offered to account decline seen in working memory. This theory examines the idea that older adults are unable to suppress irrelevant information in working memory, and thus the capacity for relevant information is subsequently limited. Less space for new stimuli due may attribute to the declines seen in an individual's working memory as they age.

As we age, deficits are seen in the ability to integrate, manipulate, and reorganize the contents of working memory in order to complete higher level cognitive tasks such as problem solving, decision making, goal setting, and planning. More reasech must be completed in order to determine what the exact cause of these age related deficits in working memory are. It is likely that attention,processing speed, capacity reduction, and inhibitory control may all play a role in these age related deficits. The brain regions that are active during working memory tasks are also being evaluated, and research has shown that different parts of the brain are activated during working memory in younger adults as compared to older adults. This suggests that younger and older adults are performing these tasks differently.