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Shinkeigaku (1994) conducted a study to measure the
affect of age on episodic memory. The subjects of
this study were two groups of Japanese, aged forty to
seventy-five years. They were asked 85 questions
about public events that are familiar to their Japanese
culture. The events were scatted over four decades.
The researcher found that as age goes up informants’
performance went down (missed correct answers).
Older informants did not do as good as the younger
ones in both old memories – thirty years old events
and recent events – ten and fewer years old events.
The results of this study confirm that episodic
memory is significantly affected by age. Semantic
memory, on the other hand, is less affected by age
because older people exhibit better or equivalent
knowledge as younger adults (Bee, 1996). As a
matter of fact, older people have more robust
schemata than younger adults due to longer
experiences and accumulating meaningful input.
In sum, the two main problems usually
experienced by older adults due to age, as it applies
to long-term memory, are the two processes of
encoding and retrieving information. As for the
encoding issue, researchers have detected problems in
the process of encoding new information. They
ascribed such observation to the fact that older adults
cannot fit first-time new information in any existing
schemata; here the well-established schemata resist
encoding the new information for lack of finding a
suitable place for it within the space already
organized (Swanson, 1999). Also, retrieval process
is problematic for older adults. This process is either
recognition or recall. If the task requires recognition,
the age variable is not found significant: older adults
and younger adults function relatively equally.
However, recall process is found to be more difficult
for older adults (Bee, 1996).
5 CONCLUSION
In this paper, I presented the way in which memory
works as a means to understand age’s impact on
memory. In the light of recent research reviewed in
this paper, age does not affect all types of memory in
the same ways. As a matter of fact, there are certain
aspects of memory that are not affected at all, like the
procedural memory. However, age’s impact is
detectible in other types of memories in different
ways. For example, in sensory memory, people
experience decline in the perception system (sight and
hearing), which would affect the amount of input
saved on the sensory register.
Working memory is affect by age as a result of the
slowing down of the processes of receiving and
sending information to the long-term memory. Also,
it is affected by the fact that information in short-term
memory tends to decay more rapidly in older adults.
Long term-memory is more affected in the area of
episodic memory more than the two other types. The
explanation given in the literature ascribed such
observation to the two processes of encoding and
retrieving to and from the long-term memory. At the
encoding level, older adults are inclined to
deposit/encode new input in well-established manner
by which new information get subsumed under
certain existing category; if the category is not there,
then the encoding process becomes more difficult. As
for the retrieval process, older people tend to exert
more effort to recall information due to confusion,
interferences, and ill categorized information.
The good news is that most of the difficulties cited
in the research on the effect of age on memory are not
fatal. As a matter of fact, people can overcome such
difficulties by employing certain techniques. For
example, at the sensory memory stage, older adult
could sharpen their vision and hearing by using
prescribed aids. Working memory could be saved by
rehearsing and chunking items of information. And
long-term memory processes of encoding and
retrieval could be maintained by practicing recall and
connecting new ideas to existing knowledge. Other
suggestions to improve long-term memory retrieval
and encoding may include focusing attention on the
tasks, avoiding distractions, intending to put effort,
avoiding tension, and using external aids like a paper
and a pencil.
REFERENCES
Anderson, J. 1996. "ACT: A simple theory of complex
cognition", American Psychologist, 51(4), 355-365.
Bee, H. 1996. The journey of adulthood (3rd ed.). Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Bors, D. A., & Forrin, B. 1995. Age, speed of information
processing, recall, and fluid intelligence. Intelligence,
20, 229-248.
Gathercole, S. and Baddeley, A. 1993. Working memory
and Language. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Hulme, C. & Mackenzie, S. 1992. Working Memory and
Severe Learning Difficulties. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, Publishers
Merriam, S. & Caffarella, R. 1999. Learning in adulthood
(2nd addition). San Francesco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Matlin, M. 1998. Cognition (4th edition). Harcourt Brace
College Publishers, Orlando: FL.
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