Memory (Continued) and Intelligence
Lecture 5
October 10, 07
Outline for Today’s Class
• How does memory function in everyday
situations?
• How do older adults perceive their memory?
• What can older adults do to help their
memory?
• What is intelligence?
• What are the factors moderating changes in
cognitive abilities?
Is Memory Always Accurate?
• Older adults seem more vulnerable to
generate false memories. e.g.: The false
fame experiment.
• Older adults are less apt to remember the
source of information they have learned,
making them more vulnerable to effects of
familiarity.
• However, one caveat to that finding is
presented in the Rahhal et al. (2002) paper.
Are There Sources Older Adults Can
Remember?
• Perceptual (voice) vs. Conceptual (truth,
value statement about the person in
photograph) information
• Young adults were more reliable when it
came to voice source, but there was no age
difference for truth/value statement.
• Older adults are better at remembering
affective, value-based details than
perceptual ones.
More About Source Memory
• May & Rahhal (2005) found further evidence that
only emotional conceptual information supports
recall (e.g. remembering if food is rotten or not at
a wedding reception), while percepetual and nonemotional conceptual do not (e.g.: remembering
the location of food items or temperature at
which food should be served.)
• Same for remember car information: colour
(perceptual) vs. class (non-emotional conceptual)
vs. safety (emotional conceptual).
Can The Presentation of a Memory Task
Influence Performance?
• In older adults, instructions make a big
difference.
• Rahhal et al. (2001): Instructions which
emphasized the memory nature of a task led
to a poorer performance than when it did
not… Why?
• Generating better strategies?
Memory for Text
• Text clearly organized: Fewer age-related
differences. Why?
• Rapid presentation, highly unpredictable or
unorganized material, and densely presented
material have adverse effects.
• Differences disappear when speed of
presentation is controlled.
• Personal beliefs or knowledge influence recall.
Example- Logical Memory Subtest of WMS
Memory for Situation Models
• Younger and older adults are similar in ability
to construct and update situation models
– Exception: older adults take longer to memorize
maps and have slower reading times
• Older adults use integrative or interpretive
style for non-fables, whereas younger adults
use more literal or text-based style
• No age differences are found for fables
• Benefits of prior knowledge is similar for older
and younger adults
• Social context matters in the way stories are
retold—for older adults, it depends on the
listener.
Video
• The Secret Life of the Brain- The Aging
Brain: Through Many Lives Call number:
6425
• Why is forced use of a weakened limb so
important? What are the mechanisms
underlying this technique?
• What are the neurological changes that
may affect memory as people age?
• How can physical activity contribute to
better cognition?
• How is Alzheimer’s disease diagnosed?
• What are some of the difficulties exhibited
by the patient diagnosed with AD in the
video?
• What are the pathological changes
underlying AD?
Text Memory and Episodic Memory
• Both are affected by a similar set of variables.
• Being old does not necessarily mean that one
cannot remember, especially if the situation
provides an optimal opportunity to do so,
such as helpful cues to organize the
information are provided.
Age-related deficits in route learning
• Wilkniss and colleagues (1997) pinpointed 4
deficits in route-learning seen in older adults:
1) Tend to focus only on specific, salient features (Lipman,
1991)
2) Difficulty in selecting optimal environmental features
to help navigation (Kirasic et al., 1992)
3) Difficulty in organizing features temporally and
spatially (Lipman, 1991)
4) Deficit in acquisition and use of diagrams (Lipman &
Caplan, 1992)
• Older adults experience more difficulties with
abstraction. They are less efficient at transferring
knowledge acquired in 2D to 3D environments.
Age-related deficits (continued)
• Kirasic (1991) conducted a study in a real-life
supermarket showing that older adults tend to
be slower than young adults at acquiring
spatial info in a novel environment.
• Older participants performed better in a
familiar supermarket, but still did more poorly
than young participants.
Model of way-finding behaviour
• Kirasic (2000): Model of way-finding behaviour. Age
is negatively correlated with general spatial ability as
established by neuropsychological tests.
• This general spatial factor influences learning of
environmental layout but a significant portion of the
relationship between environmental knowledge and
age remains unaccounted for by general spatial
ability.
Time To Completion For Each Trial
200
180
160
Time (s)
140
120
100
80
60
40
Young adults
20
Older adults
0
Trial 1
Trial 2
Trial 3
Trial 4
Trials
Trial
Path B
Trial
Short
Delay
Trial
Long
Delay
Number of Wrong Turns
Number of Wrong Turns For Each Trial
1,2
Young adults
1
Older adults
0,8
0,6
0,4
0,2
0
Trial 1
Trial 2
Trial 3
Trial 4
Trials
Trial
Path B
Trial
Short
Delay
Trial
Long
Delay
Examples of recognition
slides
Building present in the city
Sample slide of a foil
Recognition Task
30
Young adults
Older adults
25
Score
20
15
10
5
0
Total Recognition
Score
False Positives
False Negatives
Prospective Memory
• Remembering to perform a planned action in
the future
– Remembering to take one’s medication
– Correlated with busy lifestyle as well as age
• Differences in time-related and event-related
prospective memory task
– Time-based task more difficult for older adults
– Availability of cues are important
Memory for Pictures
• Although older adults are clearly worse in
remembering words, researchers did not find
significant age differences in memory for
pictures.
• Older adults rely more on schema to “fill in
the blanks”.
Self-Evaluations of Memory Abilities
• Researchers focus on two types of awareness about
memory
1. Knowledge of how memory works
2. Self evaluation – memory monitoring
Age Differences in Metamemory
• Differences in age is explored mainly by use of
questionnaires
• Belief in inevitable decline is potentially damaging
The Role of Memory Self-Efficacy
• Perception of one’s own memory can
influence its functioning.
• Memory self-efficacy is a key aspect of
metamemory & to understanding other
aspects of aging, such as mastering the
environment
• Overall, older adults with lower memory selfefficacy perform worse on memory tasks
Age Differences in Memory Monitoring
• Predictions without experience
– Estimating performance
• Predictions after experience
– Regardless of age, adults overestimate
performance on recall tasks, but underestimate
performance on recognition tasks
• Comparing prediction types
– Age difference depends on tasks
Abnormal Changes in Memory
• Mild Cognitive Impairment vs. Alzheimer’s
disease: What is the difference?
– Starting drugs earlier to hope to preserve
function: Aricept & Donepezil
• Nun Study
• Depression: Mimicking some of the changes
seen in Alzheimer’s disease
• However depression impacts attentional
processes further than AD does.
Training Memory Skills
• Memory strategies
– Paying attention to incoming information
– Making connections with stored information
• The E-I-E-I-O framework strategy
– Explicit memory
– Implicit memory
– External memory aids
– Internal memory aids
– The aha or O!
Memory and Aging Program
• Developed by Angela Troyer in 1997 at Baycrest
• Various components:
– Education about memory
– Relaxation training
– External strategies (AWORM)
• Benefits (from program evaluation)
– Increased knowledge
– Increased confidence/self-efficacy
– Increased number of strategies
• Memory Intervention Program
Memory tools:
Attention
Writing
Organization
Repetition
Meaningfulness
Courtesy of Dr. Angela Troyer, Psychology Department, Baycrest
Organization
AWORM
• Organize information to be remembered.
Courtesy of Dr. Angela Troyer, Psychology Department, Baycrest
ginger ale
turnip
chicken
carrots
steak
milk
salmon
beans
orange
juice
broccoli
hamburger
wine
Repetition
AWORM
• At first, repeat the information over short
intervals.
• Eventually, repeat the information over
long intervals.
Spaced Repetition
Courtesy of Dr. Angela Troyer, Psychology Department, Baycrest
Immediately
5 seconds later
10 seconds later
30 seconds later
1 minute later
2 minutes later
5 minutes later
15 minutes later
30 minutes later
Courtesy of Dr. Angela Troyer, Psychology Department, Baycrest
Meaningfulness
• Think of what something means.
• Visualize a picture.
• Associate it with something else.
Courtesy of Dr. Angela Troyer, Psychology Department, Baycrest
AWORM
Strategies to Benefit Memory
• External memory aids
– Computer or PDA
– Date books or post-it notes
• Internal memory aids
– Mental imagery
– Method of loci
– Mental retracing
– Acronyms
Other Strategies to Improve Memory
• Exercising Memory
– Practice organizing a grocery list
– Physical and mental activity may serve as a
protective factor later in life
• Memory Drugs
– Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors
– Modest short term improvement only
• Combining Strategies
– Tailor the intervention to fit the problem
Defining Intelligence
• Intelligence involves more than just a
particular fixed set of characteristics
• Laypersons and experts agree on three
clusters of intelligence
– Problem-solving ability
– Verbal ability
– Social competence
The Big Picture: A Life-Span View
• Theories of intelligence have four concepts
– Multidimensional
– Multidirectionality
– Plasticity
– Interindividual variability
• The dual component model of intellectual
functioning
– Mechanics of intelligence
– Pragmatics of intelligence
Research Approaches to Intelligence
• The psychometric approach
– Measuring intelligence as a score on a
standardized test
• Focus is on getting correct answers
• Example: Wechlser Adult Intelligence Scale
• The cognitive-structural approach
– Ways in which people conceptualize and solve
problems emphasizing developmental changes in
modes and styles of thinking
Measuring Intelligence
• Primary Mental Abilities (Thurstone, 1938;
Ekstrom et al.,1979; Schaie, 1994, 1996)
– Numerical facility
– Word fluency
– Verbal meaning
– Inductive reasoning
– Spatial orientation
– Perceptual speed
– Verbal memory
Age-Related Changes in Primary
Abilities
• Data from K. Warner Schaie’s Seattle Longitudinal
Study of more than 5000 individuals from 1956 to
1998 in six testing cycles
– People tend to improve on primary abilities until late 30s
early 40s
– Scores stabilize until mid-50s early 60s
– By late 60s consistent declines are seen
– Nearly everyone shows a decline in one ability, but few
show decline on four or five abilities
Secondary Mental Abilities
• At least six secondary mental abilities have
been found (Table 8.1)
– Fluid Intelligence (Gf)
• Abilities that make you a flexible and adaptive thinker,
to draw inferences, and relationships between
concepts independent of knowledge and experience
– Crystallized Intelligence (Gc)
• The knowledge acquired through life experience and
education in a particular culture
Moderators of Intellectual Change
• Cohort differences
– Comparing longitudinal studies with crosssectional show little or no decline in intellectual
performance with age
• Information processing
– Perceptual speed may account for age-related
decline
– Working memory decline may account for poor
performance of older adults if coordination
between old and new information is required
Moderators of Intellectual Change
• Social and lifestyle variables
– Differences in cognitive skills needed in different
occupations makes a difference in intellectual
development
– Higher education and socioeconomic status also
related to slower rates of intellectual decline
– Does a cognitively engaging lifestyle predict greater
intellectual functioning?
• Personality
– High levels of fluid abilities and a high sense of
internal control lead to positive changes in people’s
perception of their abilities
Moderators of Intellectual Change
• Health
– A connection between disease and intelligence has
been established in general and in cardiovascular
disease in particular
– The participants in the Seattle Longitudinal Study
who declined in inductive reasoning had
significantly more illness diagnoses and visits to
physicians for cardiovascular disease
– Hypertension is not as clear. Severe HT may indicate
decline whereas mild HT may have positive effects
on intellectual functioning
Moderators of Intellectual Change
• Relevancy and appropriateness of tasks
– Traditional tests have high correlation with tests that have
been updated to measure actual tasks faced by older
persons
• Modifying primary abilities
– Training seems to slow declines in some primary abilities
• Project ADEPT and Project ACTIVE
– Ability-specific training does improve in primary abilities
– Effects varies in ability to maintain and transfer gains
Moderators of Intellectual Change
• Other attempts to train fluid abilities
– Schaie and Willis’ cognitive training
• Long-term effects of training
– Seven year follow-up to the original ADEPT
showed significant training effects
– 64% of trained group’s performance was above
the pre-training level compared to 33% of the
control group