Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 15, 2026

Using Practice Testing, Public Speaking, and Source Monitoring to Examine the Influences of Learning Strategies and Stress on Episodic Memory
Published on: June 14, 2019
Everyday memory compensation: the impact of cognitive reserve, subjective memory, and stress
Douglas D Garrett1, Cheryl L Grady1, Lynn Hasher1
1Rotman Research Institute.
Abstract:
To determine the potential importance of several unexplored covariates of everyday memory compensation, the authors examined relations between responses on the Memory Compensation Questionnaire (a self-report measure of everyday memory compensation) and cognitive reserve (education and verbal IQ), subjective memory, and life stress in 66 older adults (mean age = 70.55 years). Key results indicated that compensation occurred in people (a) whose IQ level was greater than their education level (representing cognitive reserve "discordance") but not in people whose IQ was commensurate with their education (representing cognitive reserve "concordance"); (b) who had greater perceived memory errors; and (c) who experienced heightened stress. Further, high-stress older adults compensated whether perceived memory errors were low or high, but low-stress older adults compensated only if they perceived high memory errors. Bootstrapped confidence intervals around model betas provided further support for estimate reliability. These results suggest boundary conditions for the concept of cognitive reserve, and highlight the importance of subjective memory and life stress for defining contexts in which compensation may occur.
Related Concept Videos
Traumatic Memory
Psychological Responses to Stress
Interference and Decay
Interference occurs when competing memories hinder the retrieval of particular information. It can be classified into two types: proactive and retroactive interference. Proactive...
The Influence of Cognition on Affect
Eyewitness Memory
One such error is memory distortion, which occurs because human memory does not function like a...
The Influence of Affect on Cognition

