Memory, language, and ageing

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience of Aging

Background:

• Cognitive functioning changes with age, affecting memory and language.
• Normal aging presents a pattern of both preserved and impaired cognitive abilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide theoretical and empirical support for using practice and familiar skills to enhance cognitive function in older adults.
• To review age-related changes in memory and language and their implications for cognitive aging theories.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of empirical research on age-related cognitive changes.
• Analysis of patterns in memory and language performance in normal old age.

Main Results:

• Memory for practiced skills and familiar information (factual, semantic, autobiographical) is generally preserved.
• Memory requiring new connections (recent events, new facts, source recall) is impaired.
• Language production, specifically word finding and spelling, shows age-related declines.

Conclusions:

• A pattern of preserved old learning and impaired new learning exists across different memory types.
• This pattern challenges information-universal theories of cognitive aging.
• Information-specific theories may better explain the differential impact of aging on cognitive abilities.