Improving memory performance in the aged through mnemonic training: a meta-analytic study.
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.
Verhaeghen
P
P
Center for Developmental Psychology, University of Louvain (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), Belgium.
Marcoen
A
A
Goossens
L
L
D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D011939:Mental Recall; D015201:Meta-Analysis as Topic; D011214:Practice, Psychological; D012153:Retention, Psychology