Subjective memory ratings provide information that is distinct from objective memory performance, and there is a need for reliable and valid metamemory measures. The Multifactorial Memory Questionnaire (MMQ), developed to assess separate dimensions of memory ratings that are applicable to clinical assessment and intervention, includes scales of Contentment (i.e., affect regarding one's memory), Ability (i.e., self-appraisal of one's memory capabilities), and Strategy (i.e., reported frequency of memory strategy use). Among a group of 115 older adults, analyses revealed excellent content validity, factorial validity, test-retest and intratest reliability, convergent and discriminant construct validity, and independence from demographic variables. The psychometric strengths of the MMQ, together with descriptive statistics provided for healthy older adults, make this questionnaire useful in both clinical and research settings.

Evidence that ovarian steroid hormones such as estrogen and progesterone affect cognition comes from studies of memory in older women receiving estrogen replacement therapy and studies of sexually dimorphic skills in young women across the menstrual cycle. Sixteen women (ages 18-28) completed tests of memory (implicit category exemplar generation, category-cued recall, implicit fragmented object identification) and sexually dimorphic skills (fine motor coordination, verbal fluency, mental rotations) at the early follicular (low estrogen and progesterone) and midluteal (high estrogen and progesterone) phases of the menstrual cycle. Performance on category exemplar generation, a test of conceptual implicit memory, was better at the midluteal than the follicular phase. In contrast, performance on a test of explicit memory, category-cued recall, did not vary across the menstrual cycle. At Session 1, women in the follicular phase performed better on the fragmented object identification task than did those in the midluteal phase. This unexpected finding suggests that high levels of ovarian hormones might inhibit perceptual object priming. Results confirmed previous reports of decreased mental rotations and improved motor skills and fluency in the midluteal phase. Estradiol levels correlated positively with verbal fluency and negatively with mental rotations and perceptual priming, which suggest that estrogen, and not progesterone, was responsible for the observed changes in cognition. Mood did not vary across the cycle phases. Overall, the findings suggest that estrogen may facilitate the automatic activation of verbal representations in memory.

Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) represents a high-risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and is characterized by a selective decline in episodic memory. Although by definition aMCI is not associated with impaired verbal fluency performance, we examined relative differences between fluency tasks because AD is characterized by poorer semantic than phonemic fluency. Phonemic and semantic fluency trials were administered to 46 healthy controls, 33 patients with aMCI, and 33 patients with AD. Results revealed a progressive advantage (controls. aMCI. AD) in semantic, relative to phonemic fluency. Difference scores between tasks distinguished each group from the others with medium to large effect sizes (d) ranging from 0.49 to 1.07. Semantic fluency relies more on semantic associations between category exemplars than does phonemic fluency. This aMCI fluency pattern reflects degradation of semantic networks demonstrating that initial neuropathology may extend beyond known early changes in hippocampal regions.

We reviewed the records of 210 patients in the Johns Hopkins Alzheimer's Disease Research Center to evaluate the role of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) on clinical features and progression of the disease. We compared patients taking NSAIDs or aspirin on a daily basis (N = 32) to non-NSAID patients (N = 177) on clinical, cognitive, and psychiatric measures. The NSAID group had a significantly shorter duration of illness at study entry. Even after controlling for this difference, the NSAID group performed better on the Mini-Mental State Examination, Boston Naming Test, and the delayed condition of the Benton Visual Retention Test. Furthermore, analysis of longitudinal changes over 1 year revealed less decline among NSAID patients than among non-NSAID patients on measures of verbal fluency, spatial recognition, and orientation. These findings support other recent studies suggesting that NSAIDs may serve a protective role in Alzheimer's disease.

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Individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) often complain of difficulty remembering to carry out intended actions, consistent with findings of impaired prospective memory (PM) in this population. In this study, individuals with aMCI (N = 27) performed worse than healthy controls (N = 27) on the Memory for Intentions Screening Test (Raskin, 2004), including on time- and event-based subscales, and recognition of the intentions. The aMCI participants made more errors overall, but the proportion of the various error types did not differ between the two groups. Across all error types, both groups made more retrospective than prospective errors, especially on event-based PM tasks. Overall, the findings suggest that PM impairment in aMCI is associated with deficient cue detection involving both automatic (as in event-based tasks) and more strategic detection (as in time-based tasks) processes. These difficulties are likely due to a combination of problematic retrospective episodic memory (e.g., reduced encoding and/or consolidation of cue–intention pairings) and executive functions (e.g., decreased self-initiation, attention switching, and/or inhibition on memory tasks). Formal assessment of PM may help characterize the nature of the memory impairment among individuals with aMCI in clinical neuropsychological evaluations. (JINS, 2009, 15, 407–415.)

A number of memory-strategy training interventions have been developed to target and reduce the impact of normal age-related memory decline. Most outcome studies to date have used objective memory measures to evaluate the efficacy of such interventions. Participant-reported outcomes, well-suited to capture the extent to which such interventions address the expressed concerns of aging persons, have been less closely examined. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine whether memory-strategy training interventions improve participant-reported outcomes in healthy older adults with age-related memory changes. Of 536 identified articles, a total of 18 randomized controlled trials met the inclusion criteria for the review, and 15 of these provided relevant data to include in the meta-analyses. A systematic risk of bias assessment identified common problems with recruitment and masking procedures. Results from the meta-analyses indicate that memory interventions produce positive effects on several participant-reported outcomes, including improvements in perceived memory ability, memory self-efficacy, strategy use, memory-related affect, psychological well-being, and quality of life. Memory-strategy training interventions have a meaningful perceived impact on healthy older adults experiencing age-related memory changes. Future research utilizing stronger study designs (e.g., masking participants and study staff) and more closely investigating everyday functional impact is needed.

This article represents an initial attempt to adapt the three most relevant components of Moyer’s animal aggression typology to humans. These include predatory (unemotional, goal-directed), irritable (anger-based), and defensive (fear-based) aggression. As different brain networks are likely involved, the authors hypothesized that executive function and personality tests could differentiate violent from nonviolent criminals and discriminate the types originally classified on the basis of criminal history. Discriminant analyses correctly classified 80% of the violent and nonviolent groups and 74% of the predatory and irritable groups. Of theoretical salience, the predatory group resembled the unimpaired nonviolent group only on the cognitive Integrated Visual and Auditory Continuous Performance Test but was indistinguishable from the impaired irritable aggression group on the Iowa Gambling, suggesting inhibitory deficits primarily in the face of reward opportunity. Implications for the theory and application to risk assessment are discussed.