A comparison of recruiting strategies for increasing older adults' initial entry and compliance in a memory training program.

Older adults in highrise buildings were recruited for memory training using positive ("build your memory power"), neutral ("learn memory skills"), or negative ("avoid memory failures") content approaches which were: printed on a poster mounted in a prominent place (CSA), presented orally at a building meeting (PC), and, finally, printed on flyers distributed to the residents (DC). There were more volunteers after PC with neutral or positive content, but the CSA respondents were more likely to complete the training. Negative content was most likely to attract persons concerned about age-related memory decline. The discussion focused on the appropriate recruitment methods for particular intervention programs.

The link between memory performance, self-assessment, and affective status.

To investigate the relationship between memory performance, self-assessment of memory, and affective status, 67 elderly females were administered a self-assessment memory questionnaire and multiple measures of affect and laboratory memory tet performance. Canonical correlations indicated that the memory performance scores were not related to the affective measures nor to the scales of self-assessed memory ability. Affective status and self-assessment of memory skill were related, suggesting that investigations of memory performance which rely on self-assessment should also measure affective status.

Age differences in cued recall and recognition under varying encoding and retrieval conditions.

This experiment investigated the role of the encoding-retrieval relationship in adult age differences in memory. To determine the optimal encoding-retrieval conditions for adults of different ages, young, middle-aged, and older adults were given a semantic or acoustic orienting task, followed by semantic and acoustic recognition tests or semantic and acoustic cued recall tests. As predicted, the results demonstrated the importance of similar encoding and retrieval conditions at all ages, especially with semantic processing. Age differences were reduced on the recognition test and when semantic encoding was combined with a semantic cue test at retrieval. It was concluded that acoustic processing is not as effective as semantic processing for older or younger adults, and that effective use of semantic processing by older adults depends on constrained task conditions. These conditions include congruent semantic orienting questions that specify precise meanings for each target item, and retrieval cues that match the information in the orienting questions.