Use of memory strategies among younger and older adults: Results from objective and subjective measures

Abstract

Memory plays a fundamental role in the identity of people and in human life, as it enables us to interpret our surroundings and make decisions. It is known that the aging process can be accompanied by cognitive decline in some memory sub systems. However, the use of memory strategies can help encoding and retrieval of new information.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to identify and compare, using objective and subjective measures, which recall strategies are used spontaneously by young and older adults.MethodsTwenty-six first-year college students, and thirty-three seniors enrolled at the Third Age University of the same campus, completed a visual memory test including 18 black and white pictures, memorized a short story, and completed an open question about memory strategies, a memory check list to indicate strategies used, and a memory self-efficacy scale. The Bousfield categorization measure was also calculated from the recall protocol.ResultsYoung adults demonstrated better performance than the older adults on the memory tasks, and were also more confident. Both groups reported using similar strategies.ConclusionYoung and older adults seem to tackle memory tasks in similar ways but young adults outperform seniors.

Executive Control on Memory Test Performance across Life: Test of Memory Strategies

“…The cognitive deficit in the aging process has been well documented in the literature (Li et al, 2016). Some authors have reported that some cognitive skills as vocabulary, general knowledge or semantic memory are showing late life decline (Grady, 2012), yet others like conceptual reasoning, ability to learn, episodic and working memory processing speed, as well as executive functions decline gradually over time (Fabricio & Yassuda, 2011; Grady, 2012; Harada, Love, & Triebel, 2013). How the decline of these cognitive process interact to each other is still a matter of debate.…”

“…Burger, Uittenhove, Lemaire, and Taconnat (2017) argue that efficient execution of strategies is crucial to memory performance and to observing age-related differences. Some studies have stated that young people use more strategies, more spontaneously and more often than older people (Cheke, 2016; Fabricio & Yassuda, 2011).…”

“…It has been discussed largely in the literature whether performance on memory test in the older age is due to the elaboration of memory strategies (cognitive dimension) or rely more on a progressive decline of the brain structural and functional networks (neurobiological dimension). Some authors have conducted studies comparing the cognitive strategies between young participants and older adults (Fabricio & Yassuda, 2011; Fox, Baldock, Freeman, & Berry, 2016). They have observed that even if both groups used similar strategies at encoding, the younger ones showed better performance at recall if the contextual information have changed (i.e.…”