The Effects of Gender and Age on Episodic Memory Performance
1. Introduction The decline in memory function is commonly seen our everyday lives. We have all heard older people complaining about not being about to remember things as well as they once could, and there is ample research supporting their casual hypothesis (Light, 1991; Fandakova, 2013). Specifically, the most significant degradation in memory recall due to age seems to take place in our explicit memory, the aspect of memory that deals with the conscious retrieval of previous experiences and information. In contrast, age does not seem to have a direct effect on a person’s implicit memory functioning (Fleischman, 2004, pp. 617). Implicit memory refers to the ability to use previously learned information while preforming a task without specific awareness of the memory, such as using the information learned in a grade school grammar lesson when writing a paper later in college. According to a study by David Mitchell in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, poorer episodic memory performance in older adults was found to be up to 90% of the levels found in younger adults. A facet of explicit memory, episodic memory refers to the ability
…show more content…
What I am interested to see is if there is a significant interaction between the two. If such an effect was found, it would have important implications to our understanding of the differences in the brain function of males and females, and would give us a better grasp on the decline of other mental operations over the span of human life. These potential findings could lead to more accurate diagnosis of, and more effective treatment of people with conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, as well as the ability to provide better care for our aging loved
Hess, T. M., Popham, L. E., Emery, L., & Elliott, T. (2011). Mood, motivation, and misinformation: aging and affective state influences on memory. Aging Neuropsychology and Cognition, 13-34. doi:10.1080/13825585.2011.622740
What is the role of the hippocampus and associated areas such as the entorhinal cortex and medial septum in spatial navigation: Do theta oscillations have a significant effect on spatial navigation and could this shed light on the underlying neural mechanisms ?
Through studies performed on sleep-deprived rats, experimental results have shown a decrease in cellular activity in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is responsible for most of the brain’s memory processing. When entering into sleep deprivation, the brain will experience consequences such as a failure for the hippocampus to encode, consolidate, or retrieve signals powering memory processing. As a result, researchers are looking for cellular characteristics that could lead to further details into the relationship between sleep deprivation and memory impairment. There are several different ways memory can be disrupted, one suggested in being an imbalance of neurotransmitters in the hippocampal region of the brain. Both hormonal and oxidative stress are also factors that are observed to play major roles of memory impairment in the hippocampus. These
Winograd, E., & Killinger, W. A. (1983). Relating age at encoding in early childhood to adult recall: Development of flashbulb memories. Journal Of Experimental Psychology: General, 112(3), 413-422. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.112.3.413
Memory plays a significant role in the everyday lives of people of all ages. It allows them to recall information and remember skills that were learned in the past. Memory also organizes past information to help people make current and future decisions. However, imagine forgetting the names of close family members or not having the ability to find your keys every time you want to leave the house. These are some of the struggles that people with Alzheimer’s disease face daily. Alzheimer’s disease was first identified by German neurologist Alois Alzheimer in 1906, and was discovered to have an overpowering effect on explicit memory loss (Gruetzner, 1988). There are two types of Alzheimer’s disease – early onset and late onset. Early onset occurs in patients who are diagnosed before the age of 65 whereas late onset occurs in patients who are diagnosed after the age of 65. In the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease, short-term memory is often lost. As Alzheimer’s disease progresses, problems with long-term memory begin to develop, in addition to short-term memory impairments. Although a lot is known about the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, the cause has not been conclusively identified. However, as research continues, new theories about the cause of Alzheimer’s disease are being proposed. This has led to a controversy over whether Alzheimer’s disease is caused by genetics or environmental influences (Gruetzner, 1988).
To understand the concept of recovered memories and their validity, we must first understand to an extent how memory works. The Medial Temporal Lobe is the name we give to structures in our brain necessary for memory, this mainly includes the hippocampus, however the amygdala and the frontal lobe also play important roles. The hippocampus is where our long-term memories are stored in the brain, with age this becomes more dysfunctional. The amygdala and frontal lobe both work to encode our memories into our brain, however the frontal lobe also maintains agendas, refreshes and rehearses information, aids in resisting distraction, and directs our attention to certain features (2). When we think of our memory we like to think we remember everything
The mammalian brain contains several different memory systems, which can be divided into declarative and non-declarative memory systems. Declarative memory can be further divided into episodic and semantic memory, and non-declarative memory can be divided into priming, associative learning, and procedural memory.
Experience plays an immense role in presenting the desolation that age and education has on one's capacity to remember. Individuals compare and contrast the correlation between these two variables; for example, the greater ones age the less recollection they seem to have. However, Psychologists Agneta Herlitz and Jenny Rehnman challenged this case by presenting a similar a preposition comparing two opposite variables: Does one’s sex affect his or her ability to remember day to day events? The interconnection between sex and memory is surprisingly a controversial topic. According to the research they provide, an individual’s sex does, indeed, play an immense role in commemorating the affairs that arise day to day.
Knapton, S 2014, ‘Brains of elderly slow because they know so much’ Telegraph Media Group, published in the Journal of Topics in Cognitive Science, viewed on the 22nd of march 2014
According to Sternberg (1999), memory is the extraction of past experiences for information to be used in the present. The retrieval of memory is essential in every aspect of daily life, whether it is for academics, work or social purposes. However, many often take memory for granted and assume that it can be relied on because of how realistic it appears in the mind. This form of memory is also known as flashbulb memory. (Brown and Kulik, 1977). The question of whether our memory is reliably accurate has been shown to have implications in providing precise details of past events. (The British Psychological Association, 2011). In this essay, I would put forth arguments that human memory, in fact, is not completely reliable in providing accurate depictions of our past experiences. Evidence can be seen in the following two studies that support these arguments by examining episodic memory in humans. The first study is by Loftus and Pickrell (1995) who found that memory can be modified by suggestions. The second study is by Naveh-Benjamin and Craik (1995) who found that there is a predisposition for memory to decline with increasing age.
...tumps them and studies and research is still being conducted in order to gain more insight into this quizzical case. But in order to understand the correlation between age and eidetic memory, one can look at the causes as three different theories. The first theory is the Linguistic theory, the idea that as children mature, their language skills help them perceive information. The second theory is one dealing with functionalism. The idea is that over time, the child’s brain learns to retain only significant bits of information and discard unnecessary ones. And the last theory deals with association. As one matures, one learns to associate their different senses in order to process information. In all, each theory takes credence, because one provides a thoughtful and logical explanation as to why children rely less and less on visual imagery to build their memory.
In order to understand the functional relationship between learning and memory we have to first define what both learning and memory are. Learning can be described as “the acquisition of knowledge or skills through experience, practice, or study, or by being taught” (Merriam-Webster, 2014). “Memory is the means by which we draw on our past experiences in order to use this information in the present” (Sternberg, 1999). Base on this definitions one can conclude memory is essential part of our lives. Without any memory of the past, we would not be able to operate in the present or reminisce about the future. We would not be able to remember what we did a few days ago, what we have accomplished today, or what we intend to do tomorrow. Without memory our ability to learn would not exist. Learning and Memory are linked to our cognitive abilities as well as that of animals. An example that can be used to show the relationship between learning and memory is the study of how a rat behaves in a maze. As we all know rats have been used in experimental mazes since at least the early 20th century. Hundreds if not thousands of studies have looked at how rats run different types of mazes, from T-maze, to radial arm mazes, and to water mazes. These maze studies help scientist study spatial learning and memory in rats. Maze studies helped us uncover general principles about learning that can be applied to several species, including mankind. In today’s modern societies, mazes tend to be used to determine whether different treatments affect learning and memory in rats. According to Kolata al, 2005 case study the tasks that comprise the learning battery were specifically chosen so that each one placed specific sensory, motor, motivational, and info...
Highlighting this concept is the case of Susie Mckinnon, who lacks episodic memory. Though she lacks episodic memory, she does have intact semantic memory, which is another form of explicit long term memory. The WIRED article by Erika Hayasaki, reflects Mckinnon’s unique perspective and how she was able to become aware of her deficiency, as she was not uniquely aware something was wrong with her until high school and further research. By analyzing Mckinnon’s case in respect to the findings of Allen and Fortin, this allows one to understand why episodic memory is evolutionarily important for functionality and interactions in daily life.
Long-term memory is how humans process in the present, recall information from the past, or think about the future. Without long-term memory one cannot remember past memories, today, or what we may plan to do in the future. On top of that, there is no learning without long-term memory and the progress that we see today in our fast pace driven world would not exist. This is why the study and understanding of long-term memory is important for further knowledge of human nature. The long-term memory itself takes in many different forms of information including images, sounds, and meaning. The orientation of memory encompasses three important stages and the first is encoding. Encoding takes places in different locations inside the brain and this
The recognition accuracy for old events was calculated as the proportion of performed and imagined events that were correctly recognized as old, regardless of whether they were correctly attributed to having been performed or imagined. (Kelley, 2009). Even with a 1-week delay, the percentage of performed actions or imagined performing in phase 1 that were correctly remembered as old was relatively high 91.1%, and overall false alarm rates were relatively low at 4.7%. (Kelley, 2009). However people remembered that an event happened does not mean they correctly remembered how it happened. (Kelley, 2009). Source accuracy was somewhat impaired, though well above chance with the average performance of 88.8% and did not differ significantly between performed actions (M=88.7%) and imagined actions (M=89.0%). (Kelley, 2009).