Comparing memory skill maintenance across the life span: Preservation in adults, increase in children.

Abstract

The authors examined life-span differences in the maintenance of skilled episodic memory performance by assessing 100 individuals (10 -11, 12-13, 21-26, and 66 -79 ). Skill maintenance was tested in 2 follow-up sessions, the first without and the second with mnemonic reinstruction. Younger and older adults' average performance levels were stable across time. In contrast, both younger and older children's memory performance improved beyond originally attained levels. Older adults' performance improved from the first to the second follow-up session, presumably profiting from instruction-induced skill reactivation. Results suggest that (a) skill maintenance is largely intact in healthy older adults, (b) older adults need environmental support to fully reactivate their former skill levels (cf. F. I. M. Craik, 1983), and (c) children adapt a skill learned 11 months ago to their increasing cognitive capabilities.

Cognitive Changes Among Institutionalized Elderly People

“…In spite of these results, a multifactor approach can be more complete. If the aim of the study is to change beliefs and stereotypes about cognitive function in the elderly, the research should include these aspects in the program (Brehmer et al, 2008).…”

Memory plasticity in older adults: Cognitive predictors of training response and maintenance following learning of number–consonant mnemonic

“…One study by Fairchild, Friedman, Rosen, and Yesavage (2013), demonstrated that higher associative memory scores and lower training gains were associated with better maintenance one year later. Studies that involved a direct comparison of younger and older adults (Brehmer et al, 2008) or associations between age and maintenance within an older sample (O'Hara et al, 2007), indicate that maintenance is largely spared by the ageing process. In turn, this might suggest that cognitive factors such as working memory and processing speed play a limited role in explaining individual differences in durability in response to mnemonic training.…”

Cognitive Exercise and Its Role in Cognitive Function in Older Adults

“…Complex mental activity can promote several neuroplastic mechanisms, a phenomenon that is conserved well into advanced age [1] and hence may be exploited for the mitigation of age-related changes in cognition. For example, meta-analyses have shown that individuals with higher levels of mental activity are at only about half the risk of developing dementia [2] and have a reduced rate of incident cognitive decline [3], and that late-life mental exercise exhibits a dose-dependent relationship with dementia risk reduction independent of early life experiences [2].…”