title: Improving memory performance in the aged through mnemonic training: a meta-analytic study.
abstract: The effectiveness of memory training for the elderly was examined through a meta-analysis of pre-to-posttest gains on episodic memory tasks in healthy subjects aged 60 or above. Pre-to-posttest gains were found to be significantly larger in training groups (0.73 SD, k = 49) than in both control (0.38 SD, k = 10) and placebo (0.37 SD, k = 8) groups. Treatment gains in training groups were negatively affected by age of participants and duration of training sessions and positively affected by group treatment, pretraining, and memory-related interventions. No differences in treatment gain were obtained as a function of type of mnemonic taught nor the kind of pretraining used.
authors.affiliation: Center for Developmental Psychology, University of Louvain (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), Belgium.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Verhaeghen
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marcoen
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Goossens
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D011939:Mental Recall; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D012153:Retention, Psychology