Long-term effects of memory training in the elderly: A longitudinal study
Introduction
The benefits of strategy training for improving older adults’ memory performance have frequently been supported by experimental research (for a review, see Verhaeghen et al., 1992). However it is not clear yet whether the benefits of the training can be maintained throughout the years.
Usually researches on memory training (e.g., Yesavage et al., 1983, Scogin et al., 1985) are interested on short-term effects. On the contrary we know little about the long-term effects, and the literature on this topic is not homogenous. Scogin and Bienas (1988) evaluated long-term effects after 3 years from memory training sessions, both considering memory performance and complaints. After the follow-up, older adults’ performance returned to baseline levels and memory complaints did not change across this period of time. However, other researchers (Kliegl et al., 1990, Neely and Bäckman, 1993a, Neely and Bäckman, 1993b) reported long-term effects due to training even after some years. Oswald et al. (2002) demonstrated long-term beneficial effects up to 5 years after baseline examination. A similar trend was found by Ball et al. (2002) after a 2-year follow-up period.
These contradictory results on long-term effects may be explained on the basis of the difficulty for participants to re-use learned strategies in everyday life (Herrmann and Searleman, 1992). Elderly subjects often do not apply learned strategies after training because their employment in daily life requires great practice and exercise (McEvoy and Moon, 1988), or, alternatively, they tend to modify the learned strategies using them in a personal fashion (Anschutz et al., 1985, Anschutz et al., 1987). As a consequence, only subjects who incorporated trained skills into their repertoire of strategies and use them for the everyday learning were likely to exhibit long-term training effects (Anschutz et al., 1985). Nevertheless, a crucial aspect for analyzing long-term effects is related to spontaneous practice after the follow-up period. Meyer et al. (1989) introduced older adults to the use of an organizational strategy in order to learn a text. This strategy allows participants to read the text whilst at the same time discovering the structure of each passage, which proved to be useful in maintaining long-term gains. The beneficial effect of this type of training could also be associated with the fact that it could be easily employed in everyday memory practice such as reading a newspaper or a book (Dunlosky and Hertzog, 1998).
Regarding the effect of memory training on metamemory variables it seems that memory beliefs are resistant to modification (Scogin et al., 1985, McDonald-Miszczak et al., 1995, Pearman and Storandt, 2004) if training is focused on memory performance only (Verhaeghen et al., 1992). Different considerations concern metamemory knowledge since, compared to memory beliefs, the former can be gained through personal experience. Troyer (2001) demonstrated that memory knowledge, metamemory and objective memory performance can be effectively improved in old age through appropriate training.
In a previous study we investigated the effects of two different types of memory training in improving memory functions in old age by taking into account ecological and laboratory memory tasks and metamemory questionnaires (Cavallini et al., 2003). The data set of our previous experiment confirmed the validity of both memory trainings in improving memory performance and in reducing complaints about memory problems. Furthermore, our study showed that participants were able to re-use learned strategies in transfer tasks, thus improving their performance.
In the present paper, our aim is to evaluate the beneficial long-term effects of memory training in young and old people. Subjects who participated in a previous training regime (Cavallini et al., 2003) were re-tested 2 years after the training sessions. The study takes into account different training effects in both experimental and everyday memory tasks (Verhaeghen et al., 1992), whilst at the same time assesses metamemory knowledge and beliefs.
Section snippets
Method
We employed a battery of ecological and laboratory tasks together with four questionnaires associated with memory beliefs, metacognitive knowledge and memory complaints. Furthermore, the original study included two different types of memory training (loci and strategic training) and this aspect was also evaluated.
Results
Data were analyzed in a 3 × 3 × 2 repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), with age (three groups: adult, younger elderly and older elderly) and training (two levels: loci and strategic) as between-subjects factors, and phase (three levels: test, retest-1 and retest-2) as within-subject factor. The comparisons of the factor main values were performed by means of a post hoc procedure. In particular, Tukey's test with 0.05 significance level was applied according to Keppel (1991).
Because the
Discussion
The present study examined the long-term effects of memory training after a follow-up period of 2 years. Our previous published study (Cavallini et al., 2003) showed an immediate improvement due to memory training in ecological tasks, suggesting the importance of teaching strategies or techniques. Unfortunately, this result was not found 2 years after training. In fact, the long-term effects observed during the follow-up period were not homogeneous across tasks.
Only in the face/name memory test
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