[Memory training in old age: theoretical background and development of an intervention program for nursing home...

A survey of the literature reveals that studies providing hard evidence of the effects of training on improvement of cognitive skills in old age focus on highly specialized training measures. To date there are hardly any suitable procedures for memory training that have a broad effect on the consciousness of impaired individuals which would nurture a different attitude towards the entire complex of learning and memory. For this reason a memory training program was developed, aimed at conserving, reactivating, and fostering the cognitive skills of non-demented residents of old people's homes. The training program, carried out over a 3-month period, consists of a total of 24, 45-min training units. The first half of the memory training program prompts participants to use as many channels of perception as possible, and thereby, also to employ compensation possibilities. In addition, there are exercises for improving observation and concentration and for understanding the functions of memory on the basis of a simplified model of information processing. The second half of the memory training program focuses on exercises to improve short-term and medium-range retention. The exercises are oriented in content to the daily situations relevant to the residents in which memory performance is expected. The memory training program was used for the first time in a geriatric facility in Mannheim, FRG. Continued use of the program, coupled with an evaluation, is planned as part of a research project in several homes for the elderly in that greater metropolitan area.