The document provides an overview of attention and memory from an information processing perspective. It discusses key aspects of the information processing model including attentional and perceptual processing, working memory, implicit and explicit long-term memory, and factors affecting age differences in memory like encoding, retrieval, and automatic processes. It also covers topics like memory training, self-evaluations of memory abilities, and clinical issues related to distinguishing normal from abnormal memory aging.

1. Chapt er S ix
Attention and Memory
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2. The Information Processing Model
Learning Objectives
 What are the primary aspects of the
information-processing model?
 What are the areas where we observe differential
age changes in attention and memory?
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3. The Information Processing Model
Information-processing approach
 Uses a computer metaphor to explain how
people process stimuli
 The information-processing approach is based
on three assumptions:
1. People are active participants in the process.
2. Both quantitative (how much) and qualitative
(what kind) aspects of performance can be
examined.
3. Information is processed through a series of
hypothetical stages or stores.
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4. The Information Processing Model
Three fundamental questions:
1. Which areas show evidence of age differences in
the aspects of processing?
 Early stages (attention)
 Secondary memory
 Long term memory
2. How can we explain variability when we find age
differences in information processing?
3. What are the practical implications of age-related
changes in information processing?
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5. The Information Processing Model
Attentional and Perceptual Processing
 Sensory memory
 Where new, incoming information is first registered
 Large amounts of information very rapidly
 Memory details are dependent on how much
attention is given to the stimuli.
 If attention is given, then the info is passed to the
next stage of memory.
 Age differences are not typically found at this stage;
however, they do begin to appear when attentional
processes are applied to sensory memory. (ability to
direct & sustain attention, and the speed at which information is
processed)
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6. Attentional Control
Learning Objectives
 What is processing speed? What age differences are
found?
 What are the processing resources that underlie
information processing?
 What is inhibition loss? When are age differences
found?
 What are attentional resources? Under what
conditions are age differences observed?
 How do automatic and effortful processes differ? In
what situations are age differences present?
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7. Attentional Control
Speed of Processing
 How quickly and efficiently these early steps in
information processing are completed
 Slowing of processing is task-specific.
Processing Resources
 The amount of attention one has to apply to a
particular situation
 There have been a number of alternative ways of
examining a process resource hypothesis.
 Two of those are:
 Inhibitory loss
 Attentional loss
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8. Attentional Control
Inhibitory loss
 Theory: Older persons have task-irrelevant
thoughts that interfere with processing.
 Other research shows inhibition is not universal
across all aspects of stimulation.
 Certain strategies can compensate for irrelevant
information interference.
 Is there a purpose for older persons attending to
irrelevant information? (increased problem solving skills)
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9. Attentional Control
Attentional Resources
 Divided attention (how much info can be processed at any given time)
 Older person are more penalized when they
must divide their attention and find it more
difficult to multitask.
 Writing while listening
 Conversing while driving
 Extensive practice can minimize the poor
performance on multitasking.
 Older adults use strategies to compensate for
inability to multitask. (most important tasks first)
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10. Memory Processes
Learning Objectives
 What is working memory? What age differences
have been found in working memory?
 How does implicit and explicit memory differ
across age?
 How does episodic and semantic memory
performance differ across age?
 What age differences have been found in the
autobiographical aspects of episodic memory?
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11. Memory Processes
Working Memory
 The active processes and structures involved in
holding information in mind
 Simultaneously using that information,
sometimes in conjunction with incoming
information to:
 Solve a problem
 Make a decision
 Learn new information
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12. Memory Processes
Implicit versus Explicit Memory
 Explicit memory (declarative)
 Intentional and conscious remembering of information
that is learned at a specific point in time
 An example is remembering who wrote the Gettysburg
address.
 Implicit memory (procedural memory)
 Retrieval of information without conscious or intentional
recollection
 An example is a language task such as stem completion.
 Smaller age differences that explicit memory
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13. Memory Processes
Long Term Memory
 The ability to remember extensive amounts of
information from a few seconds, hours, or
decades.
 Semantic Memory
 Learning and remembering the meaning of words
and concepts that are not tied to specific occurrences
of events in time
 Episodic Memory
 Conscious recollection of information from a specific
event or point in time
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14. Memory Processes
Autobiographical Memory
 Involves remembering information and events
from our own life
 It is a form of episodic memory.
 Flashbulb memories
 Vivid memories of very personal or emotional events
 Weddings
 September 11, 2001
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15. Factors Affecting Age Differences in Memory
Learning Objectives
 What evidence is there for age differences in encoding?
 What age differences have been observed in retrieval?
 What are the relative contributions of encoding and
retrieval in explaining age differences in performance?
How does a neuroscience perspective help us
understand these contributions?
 How does automatic retrieval affect age differences in
memory?
 What age differences have been observed in processing
misinformation as true?
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16. Factors Affecting Age Differences in Memory
Age Differences in Encoding versus Retrieval
 Encoding
 Elaborative rehearsal involves making connections
between incoming information and information already
known.
 Use of strategies during encoding
 Organize
 Establish links
 Older persons are not as effective in strategies as younger.
 Cognitive Neuroscience Revisited
 Pet scans show age differences in encoding.
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17. Factors Affecting Age Differences in Memory
The Emerging Role of Automatic Retrieval
 False-fame effect
 Mistaking familiarity for fame
 Results indicate older persons have a deficit in retrieval.
 Misinformation and memory
 Source memory
 The ability to remember the source of a familiar event as well as if
the event is real or imagined (took meds vs. thought about taking meds)
 False Memory
 When one remembers items or events that did not occur
 Remembering childhood abuse that never happened
 Picking a person out of a lineup that is innocent
Study: shown pics of perpetrators & innocent bystanders; week later:
had trouble picking out the perpetrator (trouble with context
memory) 17 of 32

18. Memory for Discourse
Learning Objectives
 What age differences are observed in text-based
levels of memory for discourse?
 What age differences are observed for situation
models of discourse memory?
 What social factors and characteristics of
individuals influence memory for discourse?
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19. Memory for Discourse
Text-Based Levels
 Research date reveals two important points
 With clearly organized text, older adults are similar to
younger in recalling more main ideas than details.
 Rapid presentation of unorganized material puts older
adults at a disadvantage compare to younger.
 Does it make a difference if new information
agrees or disagrees with what people already
know?
 Older adults recall less if the new information
contradicts previously held beliefs.
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20. Memory for Discourse
Situation Models
 Different people remember differently depending
on their situation.
 Older and younger use similar updating strategies;
however, the process is more effortful for the older.
 Another performance variable is prior knowledge or
experience.
 Both older and younger do better on familiar material.
 Memory research must consider multiple factors
other than age.
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21. Memory in Context
Learning Objectives
 What age differences are there in prospective
memory?
 What are some factors that help preserve
memory as we grow older?
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22. Memory in Context
Prospective Memory
 Involves remembering to perform a planned
action in the future (remembering to remember)
 Older patients remember to take medication better
than busy middle-aged patients.
 Differences between event-related and time-related
future events.
 Time based remembering is more age related.
 Difficult or complex prospective tasks are not
remembered well by older adults.
 Self-generated memory cues help.
 Notes on a calendar, medication dispensers with
time/date cues
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23. Memory in Context
Factors That Preserve Memory
 Cognitive Reserve
Factors that lessen decline by providing flexibility in
responding and adapting to changes in the environment
Exercising memory
 Thinking of memory as a mental muscle
Multilingualism and Cognitive Functioning
 Research suggests that older adults who speak four or
more languages had the best cognitive state independent
of education.
Semantic Memory in Service of Episodic Memory
 Older adults are better at memory of related as opposed
to unrelated word pairs.
Negative Stereotypes and Memory Performance
1. Older adults do worse on memory task if they believe that
age hampers memory ability.
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24. Self-Evaluations of Memory Abilities
Learning Objectives
 What are the major types of memory self-
evaluations?
 What age differences have been found in
metamemory?
 How do younger and older adults compare on
memory monitoring tasks? How is task experience
important?
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25. Self-Evaluations of Memory Abilities
Aspects of Memory Self-evaluations
 Metamemory – knowledge about how memory works and
what we believe is true about it
 Memory Monitoring – awareness of what we are doing
with our memory right now
Age Differences in Metamemory
 Older adults
 Seem to know less about how memory works than younger
 View memory as less stable
 Expect that memory will deteriorate
 Perceive they have less control over memory
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26. Self-Evaluations of Memory Abilities
The Role of Memory Self-Efficacy
 Memory self-efficacy – the belief that one will be
able to perform a specific task
 Different than metamemory in that one may know a
good deal about how memory works, but still believe
they possess low ability to perform a specific memory
task.
 Memory successes tend to bolster self-efficacy, and
failures reduce one’s belief of memory competence.
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27. Self-Evaluations of Memory Abilities
Age Differences in Memory Monitoring
 Researchers ask to predict how well they will do
on a memory task.
 Predictions without experience
 Older adults tend to over estimate how well they will do
compared to younger.
 Predictions after experience
 Older adults are just as accurate as younger.
 Regardless of age, adults overestimate performance on
recall tasks but underestimate performance on
recognition tasks.
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28. Memory Training
Learning Objectives
 What are the major ways that memory skills are
trained? How effective are these methods?
 What are the key individual difference variables in
memory training?
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29. Memory Training
Training Memory Skills
 E – I – E – I – O Strategy
 External aids
 Notebooks or calendars
 Internal aids
 Mental processes, rote rehearsal, method of loci, mnemonics
 Explicit (direct aids)
(intentionally remembering information that was learned at a specific time)
 Implicit (indirect aids)
(retrieval of information without conscious effort)
 O! or Aha! (suddenly remembering)
 Memory Drugs
 Only modest, short term improvement
 No medical breakthroughs
 Combining Strategies
 What works with one may not work for all
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30. Clinical Issues and Memory Testing
Learning Objectives
 What is the difference between normal and
abnormal memory aging?
 What is the connection between memory and
mental health?
 How is memory affected by nutrition and drugs?
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31. Clinical Issues and Memory Testing
Normal versus Abnormal Memory Aging
 Distinguish by asking if changes disrupt a person’s
ability to function in everyday life
 Repeatedly forgetting to turn off the stove
 Forgets the way home
 Alzheimer’s
 Progressive destruction of memory
 Wernicke-Korsakoff
 Loss of recent memory and sometimes inability to form
new memory
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32. Clinical Issues and Memory Testing
Memory and Mental Health
 Depression
 Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness
 Dementias
 Declines in cognitive performance
 Irreversible and untreatable
 Studies found that negative effects of depression on
memory are greater in young and middle-aged than
in older adults.
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33. Clinical Issues and Memory Testing
Memory, Nutrition, and Drugs
 Little is known about the effects of nutrition on
memory.
 Alcohol and caffeine, if abused, will affect memory.
 Sedatives and tranquilizers have been found to impair
memory.

34. Mini-Mental Status Exam