Effects of Aging on Memory

Old age and memory

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by Finn Jensen

As we get older many things changes. Body and mind is not as it use to be when we where younger. Lets take a look on what really happens to you.

Memory Decline

The ability to encode new memories of events or facts and working memory show decline in both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. These deficits might be related to impairments seen in the ability to refresh recently processed information. Even when equated in memory for a particular item or fact, older adults have a tendency to be worse at remembering the source of their information, a deficit that may be related to declines in the capability to bind information together in memory.

Domains of Memory

In compare, implicit or procedural memory normally shows no decline with age and semantic knowledge, such as vocabulary, in fact improves somewhat with age. Further more, the enhancement seen in memory for emotional events is also maintained with age.

Qualitative Changes in Memory Processing

The majority of research on memory and aging has focused on how older adults perform less well at a particular memory task. But recently researchers have also discovered that just saying that older adults are doing the same thing, only less of it, is not always correct.

In some cases older adults seem to be using a different strategy than younger adults. For instance, brain imaging studies have revealed that older adults are more likely to use both hemispheres when carrying out memory tasks than younger adults. And further, older adults often show a positive effect when remembering information that seems to be a result of the enlarged focus on regulating emotion seen with age.

So being older does not mean you can not improve your memory. There is a ton of methods out there to pick from. Let’s find one that will work for you! And remember, and older mind has the same ability as the younger mind, it only slows a bit down.

Suggestions for Further Reading

Author:Finn Jensen, may be contacted here

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