An adult developmental study of contextual memory

Article Abstract:

Younger adults tend to perform better than older adults on many types of memory tasks, and it has been suggested that this is due to a decrease, with age, in one's ability to connect information to its context. Contextual information is useful as a memory aid. While this may be a reasonable conclusion as drawn from research with organically impaired subjects, adult developmental research with healthy subjects suggests that elderly adults are not disadvantaged relative to younger subjects in their ability to recall contextual information. They simply do not remember as well as younger adults. To further investigate the hypothesis that a relatively greater decrease in memory for contextual information than for target information occurs with increasing age, 54 young adults (18 to 30 years old), 54 middle-aged adults (40 to 55 years old), and 54 elderly adults (65 to 80 years old) viewed several slides containing a word on one of several backgrounds. One-third of the subjects in each group were told to memorize the word, one-third were told to attend to the background, and the remaining third were told that they would be required to recall both the background and the word. All subjects were then tested for recall of words, backgrounds, and word-background pairings. Interestingly, there were no interactions between age, pre-instruction, or test variables, thus no support was found for the hypothesis that with age comes greater difficulty in the recall of contextual information than target information. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Testing, Memory, Recollection (Psychology), Context effects (Psychology), Recall (Memory)

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Selected acoustic characteristics of speech production in very old males

Article Abstract:

As we age, our speech patterns change. It is often possible to tell that someone is elderly simply by listening. There are probably many reasons why speech changes occur, including hearing loss, changes in the shape of the mouth from aging bone and muscle, and dentures or lack of teeth, as well as the way the nervous system controls muscles. There are marked differences in speech between young adults and older persons up to the age of 80. The variations are even more noticeable when the speech of young adults is compared with the very elderly, i.e. those over age 85. One example of the variability between the young and old is the pronunciation of certain consonants, which may not be formed as completely by the elderly person. Thus, in an older person, the word 'tin' might come out more like 'thin.' Some studies comparing young adults with those up to age 80 have shown that the speech pattern changes in the elderly are similar to those found in people suffering from Parkinson's disease, a neurological disorder that involves the basal ganglia in the brain. It is now suggested that aging may involve processes similar to those seen in neurological disease; that is, the sensory-motor deficits seen in elderly people may reflect neurochemical changes in the basal ganglia of the brain. This is particularly true for very elderly males. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Abnormalities, Complications and side effects, Speech, Brain diseases, Parkinsonism

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Pharmacological enhancement of long-term memory retention in old mice

Article Abstract:

The impairment of memory retention was assessed in old mice, aged 24 months, and young mice, aged 4 months. The mice were of the laboratory strain called C57BL/6Nnia. The relationship of memory impairment to changes in the function of neurotransmitters or hormones that affect memory processes was also examined. Neurotransmitters are naturally occurring substances that are involved in the movement of impulses along nerves. The 24-month-old mice were given drugs known to increase the retention of memory in younger mice. Eleven pharmacological agents enhanced memory retention in old mice at doses that were optimal in younger mice. Two agents, clonidine and ST 587, were ineffective at improving memory retention in 24-month-old mice at doses shown to be effective in younger mice. These two agents belong to a group of drugs known as alpha noradrenergic agonists, which bind and activate alpha receptors, specialized proteins on the cell membrane that trigger noradrenergic nervous system responses. These results show that old mice have a similar ability to retain memory as young mice, although older mice differ from younger mice with respect to alpha noradrenergic receptors. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Models, Drug therapy, Memory, Disorders of, Memory disorders, Memory disorders in old age, Geriatric memory disorders

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