Study Shows Senors Often Remember Distant Past Better Than Recent Past

I just started a new blog called "Life Story Telling" about writing life histories. With this in mind, an article at PsychArticles Direct about Autobiographical Memory that I read today about seniors was especially interesting because it says seniors can "travel back in time to relive personal events in the most distant past better than those in the recent past." As a caregiver who assists many different people, I often see people in their 80's and 90's who might remember the time they moved to a new home as a teen-ager, but not remember events from last week.

The authors studied the effects of aging on autobiographical memory on 180 people. The nature of memories over five lifetime periods were studied. The study was originally published in "Psychology and Aging."

Family members and caregivers reminiscing with elderly seniors might try using photos, historical events, scrapboooks, family photo albums and other memory grabbers. If an elderly senior cannot remember events from a few days ago, memories from early in life might still be available for retrieval.

Organizing the life history and family history chronologically in albums or a life story can help preserve the memories by providing triggers.

When I've assisted people who had Alzheimer's or Dementia I brought out their photo albums and scrapbooks for us to look at when we had time for activities. Each person is very different and memory ability seems to change from moment to moment sometimes. However, even with some people in late stage Alzheimer's they still recognized things part of the time from the albums.

Smarter Seniors - Study Says 74 Is The New 59

I knew that mental stimulation made a difference in mental functioning and an article titled "Today's Seniors Are Smarter" by Salynn Boyles at Web MD Medical News has good news. The subtitle says "Tests Suggest Less Mental Decline for Current Generation of Elderly." People today have more mental stimulation through mass media and popular culture. The average mental ability of someone 74 years old in the study was closer to someone 15 years younger in the earlier test group.

The study compared test scores of 74 year olds today with scores from 74 year olds 16 years ago. The 74 year olds today scored closer to the 59 year olds who were tested 16 years ago.

The study said this shows that people are more able to keep working beyond retirement age today.

The scientists concluded that the huge amounts of information we receive from television, movies, and other cultural sources are providing mental stimulation so we are "smarter."

The past 20 years have been times of such great change with the increase in the mass media and the internet.

As the baby boomer generation ages it will be interesting to follow the studies to see what the characteristics of the boomers will be in ten or twenty years.

Keeping the mind exercised and mentally stimulated is something we are all reading about a lot these days. This study provides additional encouragement for staying mentally active and keeping our environments enriched with learning opportunities.