(Yale University Press, 2004)
A book co-authored by a University memory researcher is one-stop shopping for all the questions we have about memory, and how serious our lapses might be as we grow older.
Mark A. McDaniel, Ph.D., professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences, said his book Memory Fitness: A Guide for Successful Aging relies on many rigorous academic studies but is written for the layperson.
“Our mission is to give the general public a good idea of what they can reasonably expect from their memory capabilities as they age,” said McDaniel about the book he co-authored with Gilles O. Einstein, professor and chair of the psychology department at Furman University. “It also outlines some reasonable expectations about things people can do to perhaps increase their memory performances.
“As we age, almost every part of neuron function you can think of starts to deteriorate a bit.”
The authors offer strategies to stay sharp, despite those normal losses in memory function that come with age. Some of these are surprisingly simple.
“Take courses, teach somebody something, discuss movies or books, do anything that makes you struggle and problem-solve through significant cognitive effort,” McDaniel said. “There are studies that show an association between challenging daily mental activity and memory maintenance as well as less dramatic loss of memory function.”
Unfortunately, not all memory lapses that come with age are standard. McDaniel noted that an important aspect of Memory Fitness is to help people know what’s normal and what isn’t.
“Many people are increasingly concerned about Alzheimer’s,” McDaniel said. “We try to address this. We present information about what normally occurs with aging in terms of memory loss, and we have a long chapter on what occurs when you have Alzheimer’s, and what kind of memory loss you have there.
“We give people the actual questions physicians use to try to determine whether someone has a real problem or not. People can go through them — however, they shouldn’t self-diagnose — but they can get a feeling for where they stand, based on their performance relative to normal adults.”
The book includes practical advice to aid in day-to-day memory tasks, such as remembering a person’s name, a new telephone number, where you put something or even how to operate your VCR.
— Doug Main