COGNITIVE AGING
COGNITIVE SKILLS A number of cognitive skills: Memory Attention Spatial Visual Mental Rotation Executive Functions Speed of Processing Reaction Time Eye-Hand Coordination
AGING & COGNITIVE SKILLS Research shows that cognitive skills decline with increased age (Craik & McDowd, 1987). Speed of processing (T. Salthouse) Reduced attentional processing (F. Craik) Important to investigate ways of improving memory among older adults: So that they can continue to perform their daily activities, maintain their social independence, remain safe in their home, and drive safely.
SKILLS OF MEMORY Skills of memory needed for eveyday activities. Activities of daily living (ADL): Basic and include activities such as bathing, eating and transfer. Instrumental activities of daily living (IADL): Complex and include activities such as home maintenance, shopping and money management.
MEMORY DECLINE Craik and McDowd (1987) Older participants perform more poorly on cued recall tasks than recognition tasks Cued Recall tasks demand more processing resources and provide less environmental support. Rendell et al. (2005) Older adults had greater difficulty as opposed to younger adults in recalling the names of famous people. Basso et al. (2005) Long term memory diminished with increasing age. By the age of 90 years memory performance declined significantly.
MEMORY DECLINE Age related difficulties in memory: Lack of semantic encodings Difficulty in initiating effective retrieval processes e.g., searching for relevant cues that lead to effective recall Possible to reduced or even eliminate age related decrements in memory performance: Provision of enhanced encoding conditions by providing tasks that demand minimal self initiated processing and provide maximal environmental support.
STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE MEMORY Mnemonic strategies Cognitive training Video game play Memory recollection Fitness training Self Belief Education
METHOD OF LOCI Requires person to pre-memorise images of a sequence of locations. If the information to be remembered is a list of words, the person is then required to associate each word to a corresponding location using visual imagery mediation. This method aids retrieval of information by allowing the individual to mentally recall the pre-memorised sequence of locations which serve as cues to remember the associated information.
METHOD OF LOCI
PEGWORD Pegwords can be used when numbered or ordered information needs to be remembered. Pegwords are rhyming words for numbers and include the following: One is a bun two is a shoe three is a tree four is a door five is a hive six is sticks seven is heaven eight is gate nine is vine ten is hen
ACRONYMS Short poems: NEVER (NORTH) EAT (EAST) SOGGY (SOUTH) WEATBIXS (WEST)