Study: Memory Training Helps Older Adults With Recollection

Older adults with memory problems can gradually increase their ability to recollect information through a simple exercise, according to a study reported in the September issue of Neuropsychological Rehabilitation.

Janine Jennings of Wake Forest University and Larry Jacoby of Washington University were able to improve the memories of a group of older adults whose average age was 73 by showing them one word at a time from a list, and asking them to remember certain words that had already appeared on the list.

After seven days of training for about 45 minutes each day, the participants performed an average of 14 times better on the memory task.

Jennings said the memory training in this study is based on the theory that memory consists of two processes -- the automatic process of familiarity and recollection. The automatic memory process lets a person know that someone they see is familiar.

When someone begins searching their memory for why that person is familiar or when they last saw him, Jennings said they are using the second, more difficult memory process called recollection.

Specifically, we want to improve the recollection process -- the labor-intensive part of memory," Jennings said, noting that it would be helpful if older adults could strengthen the ability to recollect something following a delay.

"The next question to answer is whether the effects occur outside the lab and make a difference in people's everyday memory function," Jennings observed.

Other sources: Wake Forest University