Memory retention and retrieval in aging adults Term Paper

Memory retention and retrieval in aging adults - Term Paper Example Aging can affect both long term and short term memories of a person. Long term memories can act like the hard disk of a computer whereas short term memories can function like the Random Access Memory (RAM) of a computer. When the computer switches off all the information in the RAM will be lost whereas the information stored in the hard disk will be saved for future use. In the case of old people, both long term and short term memories can be exhausted if proper precautions are not taken. Long term memory consolidation occurs in human brain with the help of complex interactions among multiple brain systems like neurohormones. In the case of old people, these interactions among brain systems will be exhausted along with the exhausting of the body. Same way, short term memories may disappear once an old person completes a sleep cycle. Memory retention is essential for old people to conduct a normal life. Loss of memory may prevent them from identifying the objects or forgetting about t heir daily routine works. Thus their life becomes miserable when they approach their end of life period. Medical science has developed a lot and it is possible to reduce the pace of memory exhaustion among old people. In some cases, it is possible to regain the lost memory of the old people. This paper reviews the literature with respect to memory retention and retrieval among old people. Memory loss among old people There are many theories and views about the beginning of memory decline. Many people are of the view that memory mays started to decline from the age of sixty onwards. On the other hand many other are of the view that memory declining starts as early as thirty years of age itself. These contrasting views are the result of unawareness about the memory systems. Craik (2008) has succeeded in explaining these contrasting views with the help of the architecture and functioning of memory. He has explained that every human has at least five major memory systems and these syste ms show very distant rate of declining in the course of aging. â€Å"Episodic memory (memory for specific events) and working memory exhaust rapidly whereas memory for perceptual information, for highly practiced habits and procedures and for general knowledge (semantic memory) hold up relatively well†(Craik, 2008, p.343). In other words, some memory systems start to exhaust even in the early ages of thirties or forties whereas other memory systems exhaust only at a later period. People will take episodic memory loss and working memory loss as natural and less seriously than other types of memory loss and that is why these memory losses are often not catching the attention of people. Older people have relatively less abilities in keeping specific information in the memory compared to the younger generation. However, most of them are capable of retrieving general information. This is purely because of the dependency of various memory systems to age for the active functioning. Cognitive abilities such as attention, executive control, learning and problem solving etc can exhaust in the course of normal and pathological aging†. This is because of the growing inefficiency of the neurophysiological systems, blood supply, neural connectivity,