(The Rotman Research Institute of Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Canada)

My research on aging is largely theoretical and experimental, but in this paper I will attempt to show how the results of laboratory studies of memory and aging have implications for human factors, design of housing for the elderly, and methods of rehabilitation. I will first present an overview of what is known about age-related changes in memory performance. Some functions decline very little with age whereas others decline substantially, so clearly a theoretical framework is needed to provide an adequate account of these different patterns. My own preferred framework is in terms of processes rather than structures; in my view older adults are less able to carry out self-initiated processing operations (perhaps mediated by a decline in frontal lobe functioning), so performance suffers unless the appropriate processes are bolstered by environmental support.

I will then describe some recent studies from my laboratory that illustrate aspects of the theoretical framework, and also point out the relevance of the findings for practical issues. The themes covered will include the effects of divided attention on encoding and retrieval processes. Older adults show greater performance losses on the secondary task, especially during retrieval. Division of attention in young adults is one manipulation that results in levels of memory performance that resemble those of older adults; other ways of --mimicking aging-- include speeded performance and hearing in noisy conditions. Finally, some experiments will be described in which the memory performance of older adults is improved by various manipulations. The implications of the results for methods of memory rehabilitation in normal aging will be discussed.