Current Directions in Psychological Science
Current Directions in Psychological Science
5 years ago

Memory avoidance by older adults: When `old dogs' won't perform their `new tricks'.

Touron DR
Learning often involves a transition from responding based on an effortful initial strategy to using a faster and easier memory-based strategy. Older adults shift strategy more slowly compared to younger adults. I describe research establishing that age differences in strategy shift are impacted not only by declines in older adults' learning, but also by a volitional avoidance of memory retrieval. I also discuss the factors that influence older adults' memory avoidance, including age differences in understanding the available strategies' relative efficiency, accuracy, and effort, as well as age differences in the preference for a consistent strategic approach. Last, I consider the implications of memory avoidance for older adults' everyday functioning. This research demonstrates that volition and choice must be taken into account when studying cognitive performance and aging.

Publisher URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26085714

DOI: PubMed:26085714

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.