Elderly Make Good Use of Useless Information

Photo: Ribbon around a finger

Elderly can remember things and
link them to each other better
than younger people; © SXC


"We found that older brains are not only less likely to suppress irrelevant information than younger brains, but they can link the relevant and irrelevant pieces of information together and implicitly transfer this knowledge to subsequent memory tasks," said Karen Campbell, a student in psychology at the University of Toronto and leader of the study.

In the study, 24 younger adults (17 to 29 years) and 24 older adults (60 to 73 years) participated in two computer-based memory tasks. In the first task, they were shown a series of pictures that were overlapped by irrelevant words. They were told to ignore the words and concentrate on the pictures only. Every time they saw the same picture twice in a row, they were to press the space bar.


The older adults showed a 30 percent advantage over younger adults in their memory for the preserved pairs relative to the new pairs.


MEDICA.de; Source: Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care